Welcome

Research Statement

The rapidly growing field of human-centered autonomous services and interactive systems has the potential of enriching human productivity and experiences, providing enhanced diversity, equality, inclusion, and accessibility, and enhancing quality of life.  Despite recent breakthroughs in human-centered autonomous services and interactive systems, the interfaces between the intelligence of the digital world, humans, and the physical world remain thin and primitive. Optical technologies fundamentally serve a pervasive role in these interfaces, including physical sensors, imaging systems, information displays, human-computer interfaces, and data science and computational technologies. The 3D Visualization and Imaging Systems laboratory  (3DVIS Lab) specializes in a wide variety of optical technologies to address many fundamental challenges and technical gaps in creating effective human-centric displays and human interfaces, such as 3D displays, head-worn displays, virtual reality (VR) and augmented  reality technology and applications, eye tracking, gesture tracking and recognition . The 3DVIS lab also pursues research projects to gain better understanding of human visual perception and visual artifacts via 3D displays, and to investigate design principles for effective human-computer interface in augmented environments.  Finally, our research also extends to the development of novel sensing and imaging systems such as endoscopy and microscopy for biomedical applications and optical testing. 

The 3DVIS lab provides students training in a full range of multidisciplinary skills, from creation of novel system concepts and advanced optical system designs (such as freeform optical surfaces, diffractive optical element, aspherics) to system instrumentation, calibration and testing, and programming, as well as user-in-the-loop subjective and objective assessment techniques. The lab has published nearly 300 scientific articles  and has more than 50 issued US and foreign patents.

Areas of Interest

Head-mounted display  (HMD) technology

(HMD, also known as near-eye displays, or head-worn displays, XR displays)

  • Novel optical architectures and methods, such as light field displays, vari-focal and multi-focal plane displays, volumetric displays, foveated displays, eyetracked displays, mutual occlusion displays, holographic displays
  • Novel optical technologies, such as freeform optics, multi-focal optics, light guide, light engine, diffractive optics
  • Optical system design and instrumentation
  • Display calibration and metrology
  • Applications

Visual perception via VR/AR displays

  • Visual perception
  • Depth perception

Augmented virtual environments

  • Hybrid-SCAPE: Heterogeneous 3D collaborative virtual and augmented environments
  • Gaze-contingent interface
  • Tangible user interfaces in 3D augmented virtual environments
  • 3D human computer interaction

Imaging technologies

  • Endoscopy
  • Microscopy
  • Light field imaging

Optical engineering

  • Optical system design
  • Lens design
  • Opto-electronic instrumentation