Human Computer Interaction

My time at the Center for Advanced Computer Studies with the CREATE group in association with L.I.T.E enriched my interest in human computer interaction. From large-scale applications with immersive displays to small mediums and ubiquitous displays advances in hardware are consistently opening new avenues for discovery. However, as consumer demand increases the need for multimodal interfaces it also increases the strain on developers to support these interfaces. It is in this area that many of my interests lie. The type of questions I ask are how can we help reduce the amount of time spent developing interfaces, which support multiple interaction methods, and multiple interface metaphors in a single codebase; furthermore, what advances can improve the way our experience transition from our traditional desktops to our 10-foot interfaces and back down to a 4.5-inch smart phone display? With insight in to these questions we could create systems that accurately describe and map the interactions an application makes available to its users and present them seamlessly across multiple architectures

Non-Homogenous Computing

The development of threaded applications is unfortunately not a general focus of modern programing; this is unfortunate because by the end of 2010 nearly all manufactured computers contain a multi-core CPU in addition to at least one GPU. Over the years we have developed several advanced techniques for analyzing algorithms and determining the best opportunities for parallel computation. However, without experience young developers can find parallel computing difficult and riddled with complex bugs, which delay development and increase cost. I believe firmly in the development of expanded curriculums which focus on making our strongest students stronger by introducing them to techniques such as multi-threading, GPGPU, and other processor offloading techniques.

Learning Transfer

My dissertation focused on improving the benefits students receive from the utilization of a welding simulation. It focused on the presentation of visual feedback, which provided a type of feedback augmentation that may be initially more intuitive than the simulation itself. In my studies I found a severe disagreement on the academic concept of target transfer and its implementation. I believe strongly that this is a field that requires focus and further expansion despite its lengthy history. The pursuit of learning transfer lends will to my other interest as it often requires the development of complex simulations which yield well to non-homogenous environments and require the implementation of complex interaction methods.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) is a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is modified (possibly even diminished rather than augmented) by a computer. As a result, the technology functions by enhancing one’s current perception of reality. By contrast, virtual reality replaces the real world with a simulated one. Augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in semantic context with environmental elements, such as sports scores on TV during a match. With the help of advanced AR technology (e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally manipulable. Artificial information about the environment and its objects can be overlaid on the real world.

Medical Training and Simulation

Sustainment of human life is a vital part of modern society. However, learning transfer and skill sustainment is complicated by the disparate availability of expertise. Using Physiology engines as a backbone for live medical training we can push past traditional manakin based training programs and enter an era of live real time accurate feedback to the results of a clinicians techniques and interventions applied to a patient while running both Virtual and Augmented reality training scenarios.

2018-ongoing

BioGears is an open source, comprehensive, extensible human physiology engine released under the Apache 2.0 license that will drive medical education, research, and training technologies. BioGears enables accurate and consistent physiology simulation across the medical community. The engine can be used as a standalone application or integrated with simulators, sensor interfaces, and models of all fidelities.

2014-2018

ARC4 delivers accurate augmented reality (AR) for outdoor mobile applications. ARC4 users see geo-registered icons overlaid on their real-world view. ARA has successfully integrated ARC4 technology with a variety of heads-up displays and computing platforms. ARC4 can deliver leap-ahead AR situational awareness for your commercial, government, or tactical need.

2009-2013

Simulated MIG Lab is an immersive training simulation designed to rapidly induct students to the complex lessons of early weld training. It was developed to meet the low-cost requirements of a city run technical institute. The project provides a reasonably accurate simulation that would function on commodity hardware developed new approaches, which departed from current simulations on the subject. Advanced attention was given to the development of the weld bead and undercut to allow post weld inspection as part of the learning process. This work was eventually extended in to my PH.D subject mater

2009-2010

Preliminary work in LiDAR reconstruction using remote telemetry from automated drones. To be used in multi source time-lapsed intelligence visualization in conjunction with the US Military. A state of the art survey was performed for both commercial and academic solutions. Additionally, multiple implementation comparisons using acquired datasets provided a complete review in order to present the proposed forward moving research direction.

2008-2011

Virtual Volcano takes the research experience gained from the Virtual Storm project and attempts to apply and extend them to the field of Volcanology. A multi platform and interface abstract application allows for the exploration of multiple volcanic archetypes. Project was inspired to remove misconceptions in introductory students developed through a lifetime of exposure to false literary representations. Application can be run locally or differed to a remote server with interfaces available for desktop and VR paradigms.

2007-2008

Tracking solution involving a cooperation of both the hardware sensors and the software rendering system. A small, high-resolution camera is worn on the user's head, but faces backward (180 degree rotation about vertical from the user's perspective). After acquisition of the initial state, the VR rendering software draws specific fiducial markers with known size and absolute position inside the VR scene. These virtual markers are only drawn behind the user and in view of the camera. These fiducials are tracked by ARToolkitPlus and integrated by a singleconstraint-at-a-time (SCAAT) filter algorithm to update the head pose. Experiments analyzing accuracy, precision, and latency in a six-sided CAVE-like system show performance that is comparable to alternative commercial technologies.

• - Awarded Best Paper of IEEE VR Conference Proceedings 2009
• - Extended publication in IEEE Visualizations and Computer Graphics 2011

2007-2009

Partnered with Iowa State the researched focused on improving the educational transfer achieved when interacting with the program developed previously as part of an NSF funded project. The creation of additional objectives and the inclusion of higher resolution data elements for interactive sampling greatly improved feedback during user studies. Project results are still used regularly in undergraduate components of Iowa State's introduction to Meteorology.