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Guest Talks by Tobias Langlotz & Stefanie Zollmann

Info about event

Time

Thursday 25 August 2022,  at 14:00 - 16:00

Location

5335-016 Nygaard Peter Bøgh Andersen Auditoriet

Tobias Langlotz

Title: 
Augmenting Reality: From Augmented Paintings to Augmented Perceptions

Abstract: 
It was in the times of mainframe computing when researchers first explored Augmented Reality (AR) as an interface concept. Since then much time was spent on the fundamental issues faced when implementing AR interfaces such as display technologies and tracking the user in space. Many of these issues are now solved and we are increasingly transitioning into the commercialisation of Augmented Reality technology. At the same time, research moves beyond traditional AR use-cases. In my talk, I would like to present my journey in the field of Augmented Reality that is characterised by this transition. It includes past research projects in Spatial Augmented Reality and Mobile Augmented Reality which has been used in commercial applications. However, for the majority of my talk, I want to discuss my current research and emerging opportunities in the field of vision augmentations and visually indistinguishable AR but also talk about recent advances in nomadic telepresence.

Bio:
Tobias Langlotz is an Associate Professor at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Originally from Germany, he studied at the Bauhaus University in Weimar (Germany) and Graz University of Technology (Austria). At the University of Otago, he is co-directing the Human-Computer Interaction Lab where he is following his research interests in Augmented Reality, Computer Graphics, and Human-Computer Interaction. His current projects are on computational glasses to enhance human perception but also include nomadic telepresence solutions allowing people to share their environment with remote users with applications in virtual tourism. His work has been highlighted at ACM CHI, ACM Siggraph, IEEE Virtual Reality and IEEE ISMAR. For his achievements, Tobias won an "Early Career Award for Distinction in Research" from the University of Otago. Tobias' work is supported by research grants from the Royal Society, National Science Challenge and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment but also has received support from Qualcomm, Snap, Lumus, and Nokia.

Stefanie Zollmann

Title:
Visualize now or replay later: Visual Computing for Situated Visualization and Reality Capture

Abstract: 
Novel eXtended Reality interfaces have the potential to enrich the experience of users. For instance, Augmented Reality interfaces allow us to integrate information more naturally into our daily lives. Virtual Reality interfaces allow replaying captured snapshots of reality more immersively. However, these interfaces need to be carefully designed to avoid perceptual issues such as information clutter or issues with depth perception.
To address these problems, we have to find novel ways for integrating information but also for capturing the surroundings of a user. Visual Computing techniques play an important role in this process. Either by analyzing the user’s surroundings to improve the integration of situated visualizations or by capturing the surroundings of a user as a snapshot that can be later replayed more immersively. In this talk, I will discuss the potential of combinations of Computer Vision, Machine Learning and Visualization techniques for better content placement but also for computing more immersive representations of the surroundings of a user. 

Bio: 
Stefanie Zollmann is an Associate Professor for Computer Science at the University of Otago in New Zealand. At Otago, she is co-leading the Visual Computing Otago research group. Before starting at Otago in 2016, she worked as a senior developer at Animation Research Ltd on eXtended Reality visualization, Computer Graphics and Computer-Vision-based tracking technology for sports broadcasting. She also worked for Daimler and Graz University of Technology. Her main research is in the field of Visual Computing, which describes the combination of traditional Computer Graphics, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Visualization and Human-Computer-Interaction. Her research focus is on eXtended Reality (XR) for sports and media, visualization techniques for Augmented Reality and novel methods for capturing content for immersive experiences. Stefanie serves on the Editorial Boards of Transaction on Visualization and Graphics (TVCG) and Computers & Graphics and was Science and Technology program chair for ISMAR 2019 and 2020.