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Dr Adrian David Cheok
Dr Adrian David Cheok and his team at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have been developing new systems to implement Mixed Reality (MR) in order to create an almost magical environment wherein the virtual world - 3D computer-graphics images and animations - merge with the real world in real time nearly seamlessly. Architects, for example, could work on virtual 3D models at their desks and enter the models to explore the inside of a building. Surgeons could "see" inside a patient's body before operating; children could see and play with animals from exotic lands in real physical space; and games players could interact with one another as virtual characters or creatures that appear in their natural environments.
The MR project will not only allow humans to interact with one another in ways that can now only be imagined, but also with computers in new, expanded ways. Applications in a variety of areas such as education, entertainment computing, architecture, the military, medicine, and human welfare will be possible.
Dr Adrian David Cheok, a professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NUS, has headed various projects at this exciting frontier, one of which is the development of a 3D MR video collaboration and conferencing system for virtual humans so as to produce novel methods of human interaction via computer. The investigators apply computer graphics to achieve 3D holographic communication of what may well be the first real-time "holo-phone".
The designers based the enabling technology on a new algorithm for generating arbitrary views of a human collaborator at real-time speed. Creating a realistic image of the human collaborator from another user's viewpoint allows natural interaction.
Cheok has also come up with a fresh approach for users in real space to communicate with virtual collaborators by exploiting a tangible hand-interaction/user-interaction analogy. With the software, a developer can tailor-make a system in which captured 3D people can be manipulated in different ways, such as picking them up and putting them onto a desktop, or dropping them into a virtual world. An individual's hands are used for manipulation and interaction with other users who are captured as live 3D objects. This new technology opens up a broad range of exciting possibilities in the area of computer graphics and human-computer-interface development. Applications can be made in a wide variety of areas, such as education, architecture, military, medicine, training, sports, computer games, tourism, video conferencing, entertainment, and human welfare.
This work has helped to put Singapore on the world stage of interactive media, an achievement which has been recognised by the international media including numerous appearances on CNN and CNBC, leading international museums, and centres of new media. For his innovative work Cheok also received the 2003 Young Scientist Award for Physical, Information, and Engineering Sciences awarded by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research.
His work has attracted nearly $4 million dollars of funding in three years, including from DSTA Singapore, National Arts Council Singapore, and Hitachi Fellowship.
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