The 蘑菇视频 is launching a new augmented and virtual reality research center 鈥� funded by Facebook, Google, and Huawei 鈥� to accelerate innovation in the field and educate the next generation of researchers and practitioners.
The $6 million , funded with equal contributions from the three initial sponsors, creates one of the world鈥檚 first academic centers dedicated to virtual and augmented reality. The new center in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and located in Seattle 鈥� a national hub of VR activity 鈥� will support research and education initiatives with potential to deliver game-changing breakthroughs in the field.
鈥淎llen School faculty have produced pioneering research in many of the areas that underpin AR and VR technologies, including computer vision, graphics, perception, and machine learning,鈥� said , Allen School director and Wissner-Slivka Chair in Computer Science and Engineering. 鈥淭hrough our partnership with Facebook, Google, and Huawei, the Allen School and 蘑菇视频 will be at the forefront of the next great wave of AR and VR innovation 鈥� pursuing breakthrough research and educating the next generation of innovators in this exciting and rapidly expanding field.鈥�
To date, AR and VR applications are making their first steps, mostly focusing on entertainment and games. Yet everyone is interested to find the “killer app” for AR and VR. The goal of the 蘑菇视频 Reality Lab is to develop technology to power the next generation of applications that will speak to a wider population. Those diverse ideas range from learning Spanish by seeing objects labeled in your field of view to achieving telepresence by conversing with a remote relative or co-worker as if you were in the same room.
蘑菇视频 Reality Lab Advisory Board
- Michael Abrash, Chief Scientist, Oculus
- Michael Cohen, Director, Computational Photography Group, Facebook
- Paul Debevec, Senior Researcher at Google Daydream and Adjunct Research Professor at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies
- Shahram Izadi, CTO, PerceptiveIO
- Wei Su, Senior Architect of Fields Lab, Huawei Seattle Research Center
- Fan Zhang, Chief Architect, Head of Fields Lab, Huawei Seattle Research Center
鈥淲e’re seeing some really compelling and high quality AR and VR experiences being built today,鈥� said center co-lead and Allen School professor . 鈥淏ut, there are still many core research advances needed to move the industry forward 鈥� tools for easily creating content, infrastructure solutions for streaming 3D video, and privacy and security safeguards 鈥� that university researchers are uniquely positioned to tackle.鈥�
The 蘑菇视频 Reality Lab will bring together an interdisciplinary team of 蘑菇视频 faculty, graduate students and undergraduates working in 3D computer vision and perception, object recognition, graphics, game science and education, distributed computing, stream processing, databases, computer architecture, and privacy and security.
Another key function of the 蘑菇视频 Reality Lab will be to educate tomorrow鈥檚 AR and VR researchers and workers. The funding will support new courses and access to state-of-the-art labs and infrastructure for 蘑菇视频 students to develop new technologies and applications. That includes accessing emerging technologies from the center鈥檚 sponsors and allowing those companies to test new ideas in a focused setting with computer science students. An advisory board of luminaries from across the AR and VR community will help the center remain at the forefront of this burgeoning field.
The 蘑菇视频 Reality Lab builds on the Allen School鈥檚 established leadership in cutting-edge AR/VR education and research. In one example, the school in 2016 introduced the world鈥檚 , in which students built AR applications using 40 HoloLens units loaned from Microsoft before they were commercially available.
鈥淪tudents had fantastic ideas and were able to create amazing AR and VR applications ranging from Holographic Chess to teaching one how to play the piano or cook. This opened our eyes to the potential of investing deeper in development of algorithms and applications for AR and VR,鈥� said center co-lead and Allen School assistant professor . 鈥淲e realized there were so many cool things we could do if only we had more resources, more time and more devices. Given those, we can help bring the world鈥檚 AR and VR dreams to life.鈥�
The 蘑菇视频 Reality Lab鈥檚 location in Seattle 鈥� one of the world鈥檚 most active centers for VR and AR innovation 鈥� paves the way for unique industry and academic collaborations aimed at achieving new capabilities and offering users seamless experiences.
鈥淗aving an opportunity to be at the leading edge of this industry is really exciting,鈥� said co-lead and Allen School professor . 鈥淚t鈥檚 big, it鈥檚 happening now and there鈥檚 a lot of research to be done. We鈥檙e thrilled to take a leading role in making it all happen.鈥�
For more information, contact realitylab@cs.washington.edu or on Twitter.