“Optics of Virtual Reality”
Scott McEldowney, Ph.D. is a Director, Research Scientist for Reality Labs Research, Meta in Redmond, WA. His research spans areas from novel imaging systems to exploration of emerging concepts in near to eye display. Scott was the founding member of the optics research team within Reality Labs. He built and lead a team of researchers conducting advanced research in augmented and virtual reality display systems. Prior to Reality Labs Research, Scott was a Principal Optical Engineer for Microsoft incubating new hardware technologies. While at Microsoft, Scott helped develop and launch new 3D sensing platforms (Kinect) and was a core member of the team that developed the optic architecture for the first version of Hololens. Prior to Microsoft, Scott worked for 18 years in the Advanced Optical Technology division of JDSU developing optical components and systems for consumer electronics, medical instrumentation, and aerospace. Scott holds a MS degree in Mechanical Engineering and PhD in Optical Sciences from the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona.
This presentation will give an overview of Reality Labs (RL) Research, Meta and introduce many of the key elements necessary to build a successful augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) system, focusing on optics and displays. He will present recent advances at RL Research in near-to-eye display systems in aspects such as resolution, field of view, image quality, form factor, accommodation. Making progress requires not just uncovering new technological building blocks but also developing perceptual test vehicles to establish the benefits, limitations, and requirements for future VR and AR optics and displays.
The Voices of XR speaker series is made possible by Kathy McMorran Murray and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Traineeship (NRT) program as part of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Training in the Science, Technology, and Applications of Augmented and Virtual Reality at the University of Rochester (#1922591).
Where: In person in Studio X & Virtual on Zoom
When: Friday, April 15th from 1 to 2pm EST
Register: bit.ly/VoXR415
Voices of XR is a Studio X speaker series. Speakers are scholars, artists, and extended reality professionals who discuss their work with immersive technologies across disciplines and industries. All talks are free and open to the general public.