DIT PhD Project
Supervisor name & contact details:
Name: Brian Mac Namee
Email Brian.MacNamee@dit.ie
Supervisors Profile:
Research Centre:
Applied Intelligence Research Centre
The Applied Intelligence Research
Centre researches the application of
computational intelligence technologies to
real world problems. The core
competencies of the AIRC include machine
learning, language technologies, intelligent
agents and data analytics.
Research Centre website:
www.comp.dit.ie/aigroup
Supervisors Publication List:
http://bit.ly/STs2MO
Title of the Project: CharactAR: Intelligent Augmented Reality Agents for Novel Human
Computer Interfaces
Project Summary: Augmented reality (AR) is a field of growing importance in HumanComputer Interaction (HCI). AR applications add virtual objects into users’ perceptions of
the real world, typically through the use of a video-see-through head mounted display.
This allows novel HCI paradigms, for example: adding virtual schematic overlays directly
to a mechanic’s view of an engine, adding virtual reconstructions of missing parts to a
damaged artefact in a museum, prompting users with information about colleagues
when they meet them, or presenting users with virtual characters as interfaces to robotic
systems. As the hardware required for these kinds of interfaces becomes less obtrusive
and less costly they are likely to become more and more prevalent, and open up new
commercialisation opportunities.
Building on work already done within the AIRC this project will investigate the use of ARbased intelligent virtual characters as interfaces to smart environments (indoor
environments outfitted with sensors and effectors). The ultimate goal of the project will
be to present users with a virtual presence in an environment that appears to inhabit this
environment almost as a real person.
The project will have two strands of work: to investigate and overcome the technical
challenges associated with creating such interfaces, and to investigate the feasibility of
using these kinds of interfaces in the field. The first of these strands will look at issues
such as registration of virtual objects with the real world, user tracking, realistic
rendering of virtual objects (including occlusion, shadowing, and lighting), and controlling
the behaviours of virtual characters and their interactions with users. The second strand
will perform user trials in a suitable environment (possibly the DIT campus) to examine
how useful such interfaces are, and how much extra benefit they provide beyond
traditional approaches.
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)