The BMS labs aid both future and experienced scientists alike in their research. This is done from the second floor of the Cubicus building at the University of Twente campus, where there is a wide range of lab spaces and equipment available. By closely listening to the needs of scientists and students, the BMS lab aims to provide them with the right tools and equipment. The mission of the BMS lab, after all, is to bring technology to scientists, to help them and facilitate them in their studies.
An overview of the lab
The lab consists of a number of spaces located in the B wing of the University of Twente’s Cubicus building. Those lab spaces are organised around their equipment and use in studies. Amongst these spaces are fully equipped and highly specialised rooms, like a Virtual Reality (VR) lab and Recognice EEG room. Some rooms have a broader purpose, like the multimedia work- and analysis spaces and the Flexperiment cubicles. The latter of which consists of 7 small enclosed rooms that provide a consistent laboratory environment for a wide range of studies ranging from usability tests and eye-tracking to experiments involving scent. Check out our map to learn about the layout of the lab and how to find the BMS lab.
The 5 specializations of the BMS lab
At the BMS lab there are 5 easily distinguishable lab spaces, sub-labs of sorts, with a specialisation each. Let’s introduce them one by one.
The Recognice EEG lab
In the Recognice room you can find the EEG physiological specialised lab space. It contains a fully operational EEG set, with recording and observation room and various equipment to measure physiological responses. These include skin resistance and temperature. This allows researchers to get more objective data and more direct measurements of participants’ responses to stimuli. The room can be used for human behaviour research and has a one way mirror, and operating / observation room. There are multiple AV possibilities including immersive 5m-wide double 4K seamless beamer setup and flexible furniture.
The ManouVR and camera lab
In the Virtual Reality (VR) lab researchers can transport their participants to another world. This enables participants to be fully immersed, which greatly increases the realism of simulations used in studies. The BMS lab has the availability over four types of VR setups. Both the HTC Vive Pro and ManouVR setups allow the participant to walk around and interact with the VR world. The other setups, amongst which mobile setups, allow for other experiences. In addition, the lab has the availability over facial recognition cameras, which allow for the capture of expressions on the face.
Multimedia and analysis workplaces
At the lab we help students and teaching personnel alike with their research preparation and analysis. We offer several workplaces where multimedia stimuli can be created, edited and deployed and data from a wide range of measurement instruments can be analysed. Data from the VR lab, eye-tracking equipment and facial recognition cameras in addition to complex statistical analysis, require a lot of processing power. The lab offers both the workplaces and centralised processing power for these endeavours.
The Flexperiment cubicles
In the Flexperiment cubicle lab spaces, a wide range of studies is conducted. These seven rooms provide an isolated and controlled environment for studies of all sorts, ranging from eye-tracking for usability to VR and studies that use different scents. Four out of the seven rooms have their own specialisation, which consist of usability, VR, scent and eye-tracking. The rest is more flexible in use. Each room is connected to a remote controlled camera system, which allows for unobtrusive observation.
Wearable sensors
The BMS lab has a wide range of wearable sensors for immediate or longer term analysis. With our Empathica sensors you can measure physical responses like heart rate throughout an experiment and with our smart- and sport watches you can measure and log eating behaviour, activity and heart rate for a prolonged period of time.
The mobile lab
At times the campus of a university can be prohibitive to science rather than enabling and broadening. Research on location, whether it be to reach those that are not mobile enough or when the environment is part of the phenomenon studied, is an important part of science. The BMS lab has its very own fully-equipped mobile lab for exactly this purpose. The mobile lab is a heavily modified Mercedes van and is fully stocked for all kinds of experiments. It is available for researchers and staff member of the BMS faculty and can be reserved in our normal procedure. Want to make use of the van or learn more?
Services offered by the BMS lab
In addition to equipment and rooms, the BMS lab offers staff members, students and researchers of the BMS faculty various services. These range from subscriptions on transcription software, to advice on research and equipment use and the safe and secure storage of data. Moreover, the lab employs two full-time developers that are available for research projects of the BMS faculty. Want to learn more?
Find this and more at the BMS lab
This is just a brief look at all the facilities the BMS lab offers and all the ways in which the BMS lab brings technology to scientists and students of the University of Twente. In addition we, for example, offer camera equipment, recorders, microphones, AR glasses, smartphones and much more for a wide range of studies. This is in addition to available processing power and computer hardware and professional advice on experiments and their methodoloy. Get an up-to-date picture of our equipment and its availability through our availability check and reserve them through our application.