Eyal Ofek

Principal Researcher

About

I am a principal researcher at the Microsoft Research lab in Redmond, WA. My research interests include Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR), Haptics, interactive projection mapping and computer vision for human-computer interaction.

I am also the Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in Virtual Reality, for the area of Haptics and an Assoc. Editor of IEEE Computer Graphics and Application (CG&A), co-chaired the 19th ACM SIGSPATIAL 2011, and on program committee for several leading conferences.

Prior to joining Microsoft Research I obtained my Ph.D. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has founded a couple of companies in the area of computer graphics, including a successful drawing and photo editing application (Photon-Paint ) and developing the world first time-of-flight video cameras (ZCam).

For more Up-To-Date information, please see Eyal’s external homepage at: http://eyalofek.org/

Research Highlights

Inside AR and VR, a technical tour of the reality spectrum with Dr. Eyal Ofek

Dr. Eyal Ofek is a senior researcher at Microsoft Research and his work deals mainly with, well, reality. Augmented and virtual reality, to be precise. A serial entrepreneur before he came to MSR, Dr. Ofek knows a lot about the “long nose of innovation” and what it takes to bring a revolutionary new technology to a world that’s ready for it. On today’s podcast, Dr. Ofek talks about the unique challenges and opportunities of augmented and virtual reality from both a technical and social perspective; tells us why he believes AR and VR have the potential to be truly revolutionary, particularly for people with disabilities; explains why, while we’re doing pretty well in the virtual worlds of sight and sound, our sense of virtual touch remains a bit more elusive; and reveals how, if he and his colleagues are wildly successful, it won’t be that long before we’re living in a whole new world of extension, expansion, enhancement and equality.

AR & VR in the wild

Virtual Reality (VR) & Augmented reality (AR) pose challenges and opportunities from both a technical and social perspective. We could now have digital, and not physical objects change our understanding of the world around us. It is a unique opportunity to change reality as we sense it. The Microsoft Researchers are looking for new possibilities to extend our abilities when we are not bound by our physical limitations, enabling superhuman abilities on one hand, and leveling the playfield for people with physical limitations. I described efforts to design VR & AR applications that will adjust according to the user’s uncontrolled environment, enabling a continuous use during work and leisure, over the large variance of environments. I also review efforts to the extent the rendering to new capabilities such as haptic rendering.

Accessibility in VR & AR

Virtual reality (VR) is an incredibly exciting way to experience computing, providing users with intuitive and immersive means of interacting with information that attempts to mirror the way we naturally experience the world around us. It also an opportunity to level the plane field of people with physical limitation as they access the non physical virtual world. We published the open source 'SeeingVR' toolkit for people with low vision, and at CHI 2020 we presented an access of blind people to VR experiences.

A new era of spatial computing brings fresh challenges-and solutions-to VR

Researchers will be showing off a method for allowing people to safely navigate a given route in real-world environments, such as a daily walk to work, while seeing themselves strolling a different VR world, such as a city of their choosing. They’ve also developed a technology that leverages newly introduced eye-tracking of users so that visual details in VR can be changed in real time without those changes being detected. Finally, researchers have invented a new haptic feedback controller that uniquely emulates the human sense of touch by meshing centuries-old and cutting-edge technologies.

Interactive Projection Mapping

The use of projector enable large area augmentation that can be shared by multiple users.

Haptics

While visual display and 3D audio are progressing at a fast pase, Haptics is still and mostly untapped sense. Many times, due to the severe limitations of haptic rendering capability, there is a need to manipulate our senses to generate a convincing AR & VR experience of touch.

Haptic Controllers: How Microsoft is making virtual reality tangible

Researchers at Microsoft strive to advance perhaps one of the most challenging areas of research and development in virtual reality. Mike Sinclair showcases four haptic controllers and discusses their goal to realize and deliver truly immersive and convincing tactile experiences…