{"id":361382,"date":"2017-02-06T09:00:56","date_gmt":"2017-02-06T17:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/?p=361382"},"modified":"2017-02-07T16:52:24","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T00:52:24","slug":"partnership-yields-key-breakthroughs-vr-grand-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/blog\/partnership-yields-key-breakthroughs-vr-grand-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Partnership yields key breakthroughs in VR\u2019s \u201cgrand challenge\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Noboru Sean Kuno<\/a>, Research Program Manager, Microsoft Research Asia<\/em><\/p>\n

The potential for virtual reality (VR) to upend industrial design, medicine, and other specialized fields has now vaulted the emerging field into the ranks of what the National Academy of Engineering (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> calls its 14 grand challenges (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a> of the 21st<\/sup> century, an eclectic list of endeavors from preventing nuclear terror to securing cyberspace.<\/p>\n

The importance of improving VR and 3D immersive communication has been a cornerstone of Microsoft\u2019s long term investment in this technology space, resulting in multiple innovations from<\/p>\n

\"Dr.

Dr. Gene Cheung, associate professor, National Institute of Informatics, Japan<\/p><\/div>\n

Microsoft\u2019s Kinect for Xbox 360 Sensor (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, Surface Hub<\/a> and HoloLens<\/a> to Windows Creator update (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Collaborating with partners<\/h2>\n

Realizing more immersive communication via 3D applications requires a quantum leap in the capture and exchange of 3D geometry that can only be achieved with an ongoing commitment to signal processing research. At the heart of this effort is our collaborative research (CORE) project with academic partners including Dr. Gene Cheung (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, associate professor at Japan\u2019s National Institute of Informatics (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>, who has been tackling this problem for years.<\/p>\n

Breakthrough<\/h2>\n

Using depth-sensing devices such as the Kinect Sensor, researchers developed an algorithm to enable better noise reduction and restore missing details across images. Crucially, they discovered a method to utilize graph-signal smoothness prior to enhancing both natural images (see Fig. 1) and depth images.<\/p>\n

\"<bFigure

Figure 1:<\/strong> example of original 4-bit image (left) and bit-depth enhanced image to 8 bits using our approach (right)<\/p><\/div>\n

Collaboration with Microsoft Research<\/h2>\n

Dinei Florencio<\/a>, senior researcher at Microsoft Research, has been working alongside professor Cheung on research into \u201crate-constrained 3D surface estimation\u201d and \u201cprecision enhancement of multiple 3D depth maps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese two research lines are the most active in our recent collaboration,\u201d Florenicio said. \u201cAs we make the needed progress toward immersive communication, I believe Gene\u2019s research is bringing some fundamental contributions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other key members of the project include Cha Zhang<\/a> of Microsoft Research as well as Pengfei Wan, a former graduate student at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (opens in new tab)<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moving forward<\/h2>\n

Florencio and Chueng are now leading research into whether active light sensing can accurately detect informative bio-signals \u2014 such as pulse\/respiratory rate and temperature changes on a face \u2014 to reveal stress and mood or indicate if subjects are lying. A key question of the research is whether active light sensing can be extended to reveal the same details for shaded or remote human subjects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project is very interesting in that it tries to estimate bio-signals for more efficient face-to-face communications,\u201d said Tao Mei<\/a>, senior researcher at Microsoft Research. \u201cThe Principal Investigator (PI) proposed to use active imaging, which is entirely non-contact and noninvasive, to solve this problem with a novel idea by analyzing the constructed thermal and depth images in an indoor active image sensing system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon completion, Professor Cheung will make the research tool publicly available. I am looking forward to seeing continuous progress and achievements from this collaboration. We hope more researchers explore this area to expand the frontier of Virtual Reality technologies and realize Princess Leia\u2019s holographic messaging in future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Noboru Sean Kuno, Research Program Manager, Microsoft Research Asia The potential for virtual reality (VR) to upend industrial design, medicine, and other specialized fields has now vaulted the emerging field into the ranks of what the National Academy of Engineering calls its 14 grand challenges of the 21st century, an eclectic list of endeavors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39507,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-author-ordering":[],"msr_hide_image_in_river":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[194474,194475,194480],"tags":[232457,232463,195815,232466,232460,196135,202987,197346,193511,232454],"research-area":[13563,13551],"msr-region":[197903],"msr-event-type":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-promo-type":[],"msr-podcast-series":[],"class_list":["post-361382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-data-visulalization","category-database-data-analytics-platforms","category-graphics-and-multimedia","tag-14-grand-challenges","tag-depth-sensing-devices","tag-hololens","tag-hong-kong-university-of-science-and-technology","tag-japans-national-institute-of-informatics","tag-kinect-for-xbox-360","tag-national-academy-of-engineering","tag-surface-hub","tag-virtual-reality","tag-vr","msr-research-area-data-platform-analytics","msr-research-area-graphics-and-multimedia","msr-region-asia-pacific","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_event_details":{"start":"","end":"","location":""},"podcast_url":"","podcast_episode":"","msr_research_lab":[199560],"msr_impact_theme":[],"related-publications":[],"related-downloads":[],"related-videos":[],"related-academic-programs":[],"related-groups":[],"related-projects":[],"related-events":[],"related-researchers":[],"msr_type":"Post","byline":"","formattedDate":"February 6, 2017","formattedExcerpt":"By Noboru Sean Kuno, Research Program Manager, Microsoft Research Asia The potential for virtual reality (VR) to upend industrial design, medicine, and other specialized fields has now vaulted the emerging field into the ranks of what the National Academy of Engineering calls its 14 grand…","locale":{"slug":"en_us","name":"English","native":"","english":"English"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39507"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361382"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":362330,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361382\/revisions\/362330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361382"},{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=361382"},{"taxonomy":"msr-region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-region?post=361382"},{"taxonomy":"msr-event-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-event-type?post=361382"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=361382"},{"taxonomy":"msr-post-option","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-post-option?post=361382"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=361382"},{"taxonomy":"msr-promo-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-promo-type?post=361382"},{"taxonomy":"msr-podcast-series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-podcast-series?post=361382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}