Professors Daniel Vogel and Jian Zhao are among a select group of researchers across Canada who are recipients of unrestricted funding from Reality Labs Research.
Part of the broader Meta Research organization, Reality Labs Research has awarded the two Cheriton School of Computer Science researchers $30,000 each in unrestricted funding, which allows them to put the grants toward projects of their choosing. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced that 17 researchers across Canada — with two at Waterloo — are receiving a total of $510,000 in unrestricted grants to support their research.
“This generous support from Reality Labs Research will help us develop new technologies to enhance communication in the metaverse — between people, users and data through the virtual world, blended with the real world,” said Professor Zhao. “Specifically, it will advance our study on the interactions between virtual reality live streamers and their audience, and promote the innovations for supporting various streaming strategies, communicating emotions beyond text, and visualizing streaming behaviours.”
Professor Vogel and his graduate students have been developing research and technology that plays a part in building the metaverse.
In a recent interview discussing the development of technology in human-computer interaction and the work of Waterloo’s HCI Lab, Professor Vogel said, “We’re always setting out to make things people can easily use. People look at new tech in the field of human-computer interaction, and they say it just makes sense. That’s what we want. We want to make technology that’s intuitive and straightforward, but sometimes to do that takes a lot of complex research and sophisticated software.”
L
to
R:
Professors
Daniel
Vogel
and
Jian
Zhao.
Professor
Vogel’s
research
focuses
on
fundamental
characteristics
of
human
input
and
novel
forms
of
interaction
for
current
and
future
computing
form
factors
like
touch,
tangibles,
mid-air
gestures,
and
whole-body
input,
for
everything
from
on-body
wearable
devices
and
mobile
phones,
to
large
displays
and
virtual
reality.
Professor
Zhao’s
research
focuses
on
information
visualization,
human-computer
interaction,
and
data
science.
He
develops
advanced
interaction
and
visualization
techniques
that
promote
the
interplay
between
humans,
machines,
and
data.
His
research
aims
to
boost
the
efficiency
of
real-world
data
analytical
activities
that
involve
a
large
amount
of
data,
various
complicated
models,
and
a
diverse
group
of
analysts.
Meta is involved in a push to rapidly advance metaverse-related research and technology, and today announced not only the research funding but also its intention to create up to 2,500 new tech jobs in Canada in the coming years. The company says the goal of the funding and job creation is to create the next generation of immersive online social experiences.
A statement on the funding announcement by Daniel Wigdor, director of research science at Reality Labs Research, notes that “the metaverse is the next evolution in social technologies and the successor to the mobile internet.”
“It will be made up of digital spaces, including immersive 3D experiences, that are all interconnected so you can easily move between them, and has the potential to unlock access to new creative, social and economic opportunities. In the future, you’ll be able to access the metaverse from various devices, including VR headsets and AR glasses.”
Some recent projects that have come out of Waterloo’s HCI Lab include the following:
- Smart displays that show information through fabric
- Typealike near-keyboard interaction
- Metaverse streaming services
Read the media release from Reality Labs Research for more background on the new funding. Please also Cheyenne Bholla’s March 30, 2022 article titled “Two University of Waterloo researchers receive grants to help build metaverse” in The Record.