Mattia Barbieri is a Postdoc Researcher at the Unit for Visually Impaired People (UVIP) at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). He is currently working on the National RAISE Project Spoke 1 which aims to develop and market technological solutions based on robotic systems and artificial intelligence, which respond to the real production and social needs of the Ligurian territory.
In 2024, he earned a Ph.D. in Bioengineering and Robotics, specializing in Cognitive, Interaction, and Rehabilitation Technologies, from the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the University of Genoa. His research focused on designing and developing a wearable immersive system to simulate various low-vision conditions in augmented reality, enhancing visual rehabilitators' training. He created a unique form of AR called Altered Reality (TR) and investigated its ability to induce oculomotor alterations in healthy-sighted subjects similar to those seen in individuals with maculopathy, hemianopsia, and tubular vision. His work provides a fully wearable system for training visual rehabilitators and enables researchers to study oculomotor alterations in healthy-sighted subjects. He collaborated with renowned scientists, including Giulio Sandini, Silvio Sabatini, Alessandra Sciutti, and Monica Gori.
In 2019 he obtained a Master's Degree in Digitial Humanities: Communication and New Media where he had the opportunity to acquire strong knowledge in human-computer interaction, cognitive ergonomics, and interaction in augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR). His thesis concerns the design and development of an application that aims to organize public spaces in AR and VR.
In 2017 he obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Modern Languages, Cultures, and Literature. Humanistic fields were the core and the soul of his instruction. He ended his bachelor's by defending his thesis: "Non-verbal communication in Twin Peaks".