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Research
My field is Human Factors, which is the study of people in the
work place (every work place), with the goal of redesigning tasks and
equipment to better suit the range of individuals performing them. The
field is very broad (which is why I like it), and includes many
aspects of design engineering, perceptual psychology, anthropometrics,
cognitive psychology, kinesiology, social psychology, and medicine.
My research has focussed on the benefits and usability
issues of stereoscopic displays, particularly with regards to
teleoperation and augmented reality displays. With my colleagues Paul Milgram and Julius Grodski, I've
investigated the usefulness of stereoscopic video for bomb disposal
teleoperation, developed one of the first working Augmented Reality
systems to improve the human-machine interface for this task, and
have conducted various investigations in the usability and perceptual
issues of Augmented Reality.
Comparing Monoscopic and Stereoscopic Video
My graduate work started with the goal of improving the
human-machine interface for bomb-disposal teleoperation, and
subsequently followed two paths: improving the display for telerobotics
by using stereoscopic video, and improving the user interface through
the application of Augmented Reality.
My Master's thesis
examined on the costs and benefits of using stereoscopic displays
for teleoperation. As a quick summary of my findings, I would say:
- For some tasks, like teleoperation,
that require precise positioning of objects in 3-D space,
stereoscopic displays are a great idea. They are easier to learn than
monoscopic displays, and allow faster performance with fewer
errors. [HFS Conference
1991]
- For other tasks they may not be worth it. It
really depends on the task and on the display being considered. [Master's
Thesis, DND Workshop
1993]
- Tasks that are highly repetitious won't
benefit as much from stereo displays in the long run as will those
that are always unique, such as bomb disposal and hazardous materials
cleanup.
- Displays in which the camera views are
restricted to a single position, and those in which a significant
proportion of the motion of the system is perpendicular to the display
will benefit most greatly from stereoscopic displays.
- Tasks that involve only computer graphics
without any stereoscopic video can often be accomplished better by
redesigning the task than by using stereoscopic displays. Stereoscopic
perception works best in fully rendered and richly textured
environments like the real world. Few computer-based displays can
afford the desired degree of realism.
Augmenting Reality
Augmented Reality combines a view of the real world with computer
enhancements, or augmentations, so as to make the task at hand
easier to do. Some people do this by using see-through head-mounted
displays, so that you see computer graphics floating around in the
real world. Because we are interested in teleoperation, our view of
the real world is provided by a stereoscopic video system, and our
operators view the remote site (along with the stereoscopic graphic
augmentations) on a monitor.
Unlike Virtual Reality, which seeks to create an entirely artificial
world, the goal of Augmented Reality is to present to the user the real
world (possibly at a remote location, such as underwater or space,
or of a different scale, such as micro-surgery) that is enhanced
(or augmented ) with computer graphics. The applications of
this technology include teleoperation (using a robot to do a job at
a distance using remote control), medical and architectural imaging,
and many other areas.
In the ETC-Lab, we combine stereoscopic video with carefully
calibrated stereoscopic computer graphics. At the moment, I am
investigating the perceptual aspects of Augmented Reality displays. In
particular, I am examining the effects of accommodation-vergence
conflict and accommodation mismatch on the perception of depth in
stereoscopic displays.
Inventing ARGOS
Working with Prof. Paul Milgram and Dr. Julius Grodski,
I pioneered the ETC-Lab's work in Augmented Reality, doing the
research, engineering, computer programming, and electronics work
that culminated in our patented technology which we call ARGOS
(Augmented Reality through Graphic Overlays on Stereo-video). One
of the first useful examples of Augmented Reality was the virtual pointer,
which consisted of a calibrated stereoscopic graphic pointer
superimposed on a painstakingly designed stereoscopic video system. The
pointer can be moved freely around in the remote view, and used to
measure distances and locations of objects in the real world, and can
pass this information on to the computers controlling the robots. [SPIE Stereoscopic
Displays 1991, IROS
1993]
Most of my effort since developing this technology has been
devoted to the usability issues of stereoscopic displays, and the
perceptual aspects of Augmented Reality displays. In particular, I am
trying to measure the perceptual distortions created by stereoscopic
displays.
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Papers
This is a list of some of my papers that are on-line. The
rest are either on their way, or have been superceded by later
papers. A separate Bibliography
contains a complete list of all of my publications, with full
bibliographic references.
- Perceptual
Effects in Aligning Virtual and Real Objects in Augmented Reality
Displays
(HFES 1997)
- Perceptual Issues in
Augmented Reality
(SPIE SD&A 1996)
- Telerobotic Control with
Stereoscopic Augmented Reality
(SPIE SD&A 1996)
- Merging Real and
Virtual Worlds
(IMAGINA 1995)
- Stereoscopic Vision
and Augmented Reality
(Scientific Computer and Automation
1993)
- Applications of Augmented
Reality for Human-Robot Communication
(IROS 1993)
- An Evaluation of Four
6 Degree-of-Freedom Input Techniques
(ACM InterCHI 1993)
- Defence Teleoperation and
Stereoscopic Video
(SPIE SD&A 1993)
- Virtual
Telerobotic Control
(DND Advance Technologies Workshop
1993)
- ARGOS: A Display System
for Augmenting Reality
(ACM SIGGRAPH Technical Video Review
1993)
- Stereoscopic
Video-Graphic Coordinate Specification System
(USA Patent
5,175,616, 1992)
- Skill Acquisition and Task
Performance in Teleoperation Using Monoscopic and Stereoscopic Video
Remote Viewing (won the Best Student Paper award at HFS 1991)
- An
Investigation of Monoscopic and Stereoscopic Video for
Teleoperation
(MASc thesis)
- Positioning Accuracy of a
Virtual Stereographic Pointer in a Real Stereoscopic Video World
(SPIE SD&A 1991)
- Learning Effects in
Telemanipulation with Monoscopic versus Stereoscopic Remote
Viewing
(IEEE SMC Conference 1989)
- A short segment of a talk I gave to the IICS
(International Interactive Communications Society) was broadcast around
the world on CBC
Radio's As It Happens.
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