David Drascic
CONTENTS
SKILLS
- Human Factors/Ergonomics
- consulting in usability issues for industry and government
- conducting usability investigations in an efficient but scientific
manner
- creatively applying ergonomics to solve safety and efficiency concerns
- improving worker job satisfaction and comfort
- simplifying the task: applying Industrial Engineering and ergonomics
to the design of work, from manual tasks to large work-flow systems
- performing scientific research with a background in engineering, psychology,
and computing
- Computer Programming
- in a variety of languages (C, Fortran, Basic) and operating systems
- expert knowledge and 18 years experience with C and UNIX
- eight years experience with programming for 3-D visualisation on SGI
platforms
- working knowledge of SGI UNIX system maintenance
- CGI programming with scripting languages (Perl, Awk, csh, sh)
- Statistics
- experimental design and analysis for behavioural research
- efficient design of experiments
- exploratory data analysis using a variety of statistical methods
- Desktop Publishing
- newsletter design, writing, editing, and layout
- skilled with Quark XPress, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
- expert with many office applications and desktop publishing tools
- expert knowledge of the use and systems support of the Macintosh
- Product prototyping and design
- electronics and computer systems
- interfacing hardware and software
- Internet Publishing and Web Page Design
- expert knowledge in the design of user-friendly interfaces
- anticipating client needs
- simplifying cyberspace navigation
EDUCATION
ACADEMIC
AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS
- 1994-1995: University of Toronto Open Doctoral
Fellowship
- 1994-1995: Ontario Graduate Scholarship
- 1993-1992: University of Toronto Open Doctoral
Fellowship
- 1992-1993: Ontario Graduate Scholarship
- 1992-1993: University of Toronto Open Doctoral
Fellowship
- 1991-1992: Ontario Graduate Scholarship
- 1987-1988: University of Toronto Open Fellowship
- 1983, 1985, 1986: Dean's Honour List
- 1982: Ontario Scholarship
WORK
EXPERIENCE
- David Drascic has a strong background in:
- technological development
- investigating and improving user interfaces
- scientific research in ergonomics
As a consultant in Human Factors, and as a graduate student at the
University of Toronto, he has worked on four contracts (described
below) for the Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine
(Downsview). In these contracts, David Drascic was responsible for:
- Technological Development:
- designing and developing stereoscopic video systems for teleoperation
using both NTSC displays and higher bandwidth 120 Hz displays
- designing a remotely-controllable stereoscopic camera mount and control
electronics to allow the separation and convergence angle of a pair of
stereoscopic cameras to be adjusted under computer control
- conducting a thorough theoretical review and analysis and designing
an algorithm for a Stereoscopic Camera Configuration Optimiser, for automatically
adjusting the separation and convergence angle of a stereoscopic camera
system depending on the task requirements
- creating, designing, and developing an Augmented Reality system known
as ARGOS (Augmented Reality through Graphic Overlays on Stereo-video),
which entailed considerable hardware and software work
- developing a calibration technique for the ARGOS system
- designing and developing the Stereoscopic Video Format Converter, which
can in real time transform a stereoscopic video signal from one multiplexed
format to another
- Scientific Research in Ergonomics
- conducting an extensive and wide-ranging literature review
- thoroughly examining the perceptual issues of the implementation and
the use of stereoscopic systems, beginning with a literature review, and
including extensive testing and experimentation
- designing, conducting, and analysing experiments examining the utility
and perceptual issues of using the ARGOS system
- User Interface Design
- conducting a detailed task analysis of bomb disposal teleoperation
- designing, conducting, and analysing four experiments examining the
costs and benefits of using stereoscopic video for bomb disposal teleoperation
- designing, conducting, and analysing experiments examining the usability
issues of using the ARGOS system
- Publishing
- writing, filming, narrating, editing, and producing an 11 minute video
documentary of the above work, entitled "ARGOS: A Display System for
Augmenting Reality", which was subsequently published in the Association
of Computing Machinery's SIGGRAPH Video Review, Issue 88: INTERCHI
1993 Technical Video Program
- contributed to the writing of and narrated a second 10
minute video documenting other work done in the ETC-Lab
EMPLOYMENT
HISTORY
- 1997: Internet Consulting
- Human Engineering Research and Consulting
- consulting for several clients on web page design, "Strategic
Use of the Internet", and CGI programming
- 1997: User Interface Consulting
- Human Engineering Research and Consulting
- consulting for MGI on the user interface of a new product.
- 1996: Principal Investigator
- Human Engineering Research and Consulting
- DSS Contract W7711-5-7281-(304): Augmented Reality Camera / Display
Systems, for the Defence and Civil Institute
of Environmental Medicine (DCIEM), Downsview, Ontario, Canada.
- 1994: Visiting Researcher
- ATR Communication Systems Research Laboratory
- 4 month contract to conduct independent research on perceptual issues
of "Mixed Reality" displays.
- 1990-1992: Principal Investigator
- Human Engineering Research and Consulting
- DSS Contract W7711-0-7114/01-XSE: Development of a Practical Stereoscopic
Video System for Canadian Forces Use, for the Defence
and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine (DCIEM), Downsview,
Ontario, Canada.
- 1987-Present: Research Assistant
- University of Toronto
- Assistant Investigator, DSS Contract W7711-2-7168/01-XSE: Development
of an NTSC Compatible 60 / 120 Hz Stereoscopic Video and Stereoscopic Graphics
(SV+SG) Display, for DCIEM.
- Assistant Investigator, DSS Contract W7711-7-7009-01-SE: Stereoscopic
Vision for Mobile Telerobotic Control, for DCIEM.
- 1984-1995: Tutorial Assistant
- University of Toronto
- tutored a variety of courses in Human Factors and in Computer Programming
- lectured on topics in Human Factors
- assisted in setting and marking of assignments and laboratories
- assisted in design of instructional experiments for Human Factors
- wrote a UNIX-based simulator in C for the 8086 microprocessor as an
instructional tool for an assembly-language programming course.
- 1984, 1985: Engineering Assistant
- University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies
- projects included software and hardware development
- designed and constructed the hardware and software controlling the
hardware displays of a 6 degree of freedom flight simulator
- wrote an assembler in Fortran for the 8080 microprocessor
PROFESSIONAL
MEMBERSHIPS
- Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES)
- Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
- Association of Computing Machinery (ACM)
PUBLICATIONS
PATENT
PRESENTATIONS
- Poster:
Drascic, D., Milgram, P.,
"Perceiving Depth with Stereoscopic Mixed Reality Displays"
11th Annual IRIS/PRECARN Canadian Conference on
Intelligent Systems
Ottawa, Ontario, June 2001
- Invited Presentation:
Drascic, D.,
"Recent Work on Some Perceptual Issues of Augmented Realities"
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffet Field, California, September 2000
- Invited Presentation:
Milgram, P., Drascic, D.,
"Perceptual Issues in Mixed-Reality Displays"
ICPA 9: International Conference
on Perception and Action, Toronto, July 1997
- Session Chair and Conference Committee: SPIE Stereoscopic
Displays and Applications VII, San Jose, February 1996.
- Invited Presentation: Drascic, D., Virtual and Augmented
Reality", IICS (International Interactive
Communications Society), Toronto, April 1994.
- Radio Appearance: A 4 minute 30 second segment of the above
talk was broadcast around the world on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's
(CBC) radio program As
It Happens, 13 April 1994.
- Invited Presentation: Drascic, D., "ARGOS: A Display
System for Augmenting Reality", NASA-Ames
Research Centre, California, November 1993.
- Invited Demonstration: Drascic, D., "ARGOS: A Display
System for Augmenting Reality", Virtual
Reality Systems Fall `93 & Teleoperation `93 Conference, SIG-Advanced
Applications, Inc., New York, October 1993.
- Poster: Zhai, S., Milgram, P., Drascic, D., "An Evaluation
of Four 6 Degree-of-Freedom Input Techniques", INTERCHI
`93 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Amsterdam,
April 1993.
- Invited Presentation: Drascic, D., Grodski, J.J., "Using
Stereoscopic Video for EOD Teleoperation", Canadian
Explosives Technicians Meeting, Borden Ontario, June 1992.
- Invited Presentation: Grodski, J.J., Milgram, P., Drascic, D.,
Zhai, S. "Real and Virtual World Stereoscopic Displays",
Canadian Computer Show and Conference, Toronto,
November 1992.
- Invited Presentation: Milgram, P., Drascic, D., "Real
and Virtual World Stereoscopic Displays", Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, California, March 1991.
- Invited Seminar: Drascic, D., "Stereoscopic Video and
Teleoperation", Telerobotics Unit, University
of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, March 1991.
- Invited Demonstration: Drascic, D., Milgram, P., "Virtual
Exploration of Video Space", CHI'90: Conference
on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Seattle, April 1990.
Last Update: Wednesday 25 July 2001.
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