Well..How Did I Get Here?

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1 Well..How Did I Get Here? Steve LaValle University of Illinois February 25, 2015 U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

2 Oculus VR: Quick Overview Timeline: 07/12 Oculus VR founded by Palmer Luckey, 19 08/12 Kickstarter, $2.4 million 09/12 I joined as consultant for software: math, head tracking 03/13 Development Kit shipped; I joined as full-time head scientist 06/13 Series A, valuation approx. $16 million 12/13 Series B, valuation approx. $275 million 03/14 Facebook acquisition, approx. $2 billion 07/14 Development Kit 2 shipping; I returned to UIUC U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

3 Well...How Did I Get Here? And you may ask yourself Well...How did I get here? - David Byrne, Talking Heads, 1980 U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

4 Me In The Early 1980s In 1982, I was living in video arcades and learning how to program BASIC and assembly language U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

Career as a Robotics Professor 1987-1989: BS Cpr. Engineering, U.

of Illinois 1995-1997: Postdoc, Lecturer, Stanford 1997-2001: CS Professor, Iowa

5 Career as a Robotics Professor : BS Cpr. Engineering, U. of Illinois : EE MS/PhD, Beckman Institute, U. of Illinois : Postdoc, Lecturer, Stanford : CS Professor, Iowa State : CS Professor, U. Illinois My lab in Siebel Center: U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

6 Education at UIUC BS in Computer Engineering; MS, PhD in Electrical Engineering PhD Adviser: Seth Hutchinson Assembly, microcode Digital logic design and lab, processor design Semiconductor device theory Electromagnetics Signals, systems, and control Algorithms Also, Head TA for Digital Systems Lab (under Ricardo Uribe) Decades later, at Oculus: Useful for quickly understanding MEMS sensors, digital hardware issues, calibration, error modeling. Easy to talk with real engineers. U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

7 Research: Motion Planning My long-time favorite: The Piano Movers Problem (Similar to making autonomous video game characters) U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

8 Research: Motion Planning Think in the configuration space... C obs C obs C free q G C obs q I Great familiarity with SO(3) and SE(3) geometry. Numerical and sampling issues: No problem! U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

9 Motion Strategy Library Developed a widely used library in 2000: Open source, C++, lines of code U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

Book on Planning Available since 2004: PART I Introductory Material Chapters 1-2 PART II Motion Planning (Planning in Continuous Spaces) Chapters 3-8 PART III Decision-Theoretic Planning (Planning

10 Book on Planning Available since 2004: PART I Introductory Material Chapters 1-2 PART II Motion Planning (Planning in Continuous Spaces) Chapters 3-8 PART III Decision-Theoretic Planning (Planning Under Uncertainty) Chapters 9-12 PART IV Planning Under Differential Constraints Chapters Free download ( 1000 pages): In 2012, Jack McCauley (Guitar Hero inventor, an Oculus founder) was searching for Euler angles, quaternions,... U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

11 Filtering and Information Spaces My main research efforts from 2003 to DARPA SToMP (minimalist foundations of sensing and filtering) Combinatorial filters Sensor models: Preimages, lattices Short book in 2012: Working on a longer book on sabbatical in Finland, U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

12 From Finland to California Sabbatical in Oulu Writing a book on sensing and filtering... U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

From Finland to California Sabbatical 2012-2013

13 From Finland to California Sabbatical in Oulu Writing a book on sensing and filtering... September 2012: Palmer disrupted my life U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

Nintendo Virtual Boy Virtual reality became one of the most over-hyped technologies ever.

14 VR Historical Perspective 1968: Ivan Sutherland, Sword of Damocles 1980s: Jaron Lanier, VPL Research, goggles and gloves 1992: University of Illinois, CAVE 1992: Lawnmower Man 1995: Nintendo Virtual Boy Virtual reality became one of the most over-hyped technologies ever. Problem: The component technology was not ready yet. U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

A Personal Interest My grandma (right) and her sister in 1993.

15 A Personal Interest My grandma (right) and her sister in Separated after WWII: One in US, one in Poland I brought them together in I wished they could feel present in each others homes. U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

16 Making Oculus Rift DK1 Over 70,000 headsets sold. $300 each. Open-source software. U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

17 No Upper Age Limit 90-year-old grandma in virtual Tuscany U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

18 Architecture and Real Estate Do you wish your home were bigger? U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

19 Movies A private virtual movie theater U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

20 Panoramas Pick your favorite street views and have a look around. U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

21 First-Person Shooter Games Team Fortress 2, Valve Inc. U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

22 VR Game Jam What could you do with an elephant trunk? U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

23 Thrill Seekers Virtual amusement park rides! U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

24 Brilliantly Disturbing Ever wonder how Louis XVI must have felt? U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

25 Socializing in Virtual Spaces Open Sim, Second Life,... U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

26 Head Tracking Integrate and fuse sensor data to determine orientation Avoid raw, pitch, roll angle representation U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

27 Perceptual Psychology / Vision Science Important factors: Latency Tracking jitter Optical distortion Brightness Focus IPD Tearing Screen door Frame rate Textures Virtual egomotion Head translation Adverse effects: disbelief, fatigue, simulator sickness Complications: Adaptation and variance across people U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

Oculus Development Kit 2 Low-cost, stationary camera 40 IR LEDs around the headset surface Works between 0.5m and 1.5m Define error function based on LED projection.

28 Oculus Development Kit 2 Low-cost, stationary camera 40 IR LEDs around the headset surface Works between 0.5m and 1.5m Define error function based on LED projection. Use IMU data for prediction. Iterative gradient descent onse(3). Main tracking people: Anna Yershova, Max Katsev, Dov Katz, myself U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

29 New Hardware Demands VR pushes the components to the next level: Faster switching pixels in displays Higher resolution screens Higher frame rates Improved sensors New optical systems Faster rendering pipeline Big challenges for industry. U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

30 New Software Issues Building a new platform that includes: User interfaces, including controllers High-performance, perceptually satisfying graphics Tracking: heads, eyes, full bodies Model building / scene acquisition Middleware to hide complexity from developers Exciting challenges for our industry and universities. Collaborations across disciplines: psychology, signal processing, dynamical systems and control, algorithms, humanities U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

31 Future Research and Development Sensory stimulation beyond vision: Audio Touch / haptic Olfactory / taste Vestibular Each has a low-level perceptual psychology component Higher levels of human interaction: Interfaces / HCI Communications Education Sociology, foreign language, history, art Human-centered research all around! U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

32 A Growing Ecosystem Microsoft Hololens Sony Morpheus Google Cardboard Samsung Gear VR U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

33 VR + Robots =???? U of I Research Park - Startup Cafe - Feb / 32

CS 498. Sections VR3 & VR4

CS 498. Sections VR3 & VR4 CS 498 Sections VR3 & VR4 Welcome to CS 498 - Virtual Reality Prof: Lawrence Angrave Office Location: 2217 Siebel Center Office Hours: Tues 11:30-12:30 Course Staff: Yike Wang, Rui An, Katie Mimnaugh,