Talk Abstract: How can a display appear indistinguishable from reality? We describe how to pass this “visual Turing test” using AR/VR headsets, emphasizing the perceptually-driven design of optics, display components, rendering algorithms, and sensing elements. Meta’s Display Systems Research team has pursued this line of investigation for nearly a decade, including the development of “retinal resolution” viewing optics, accommodation-supporting VR headsets, eye-tracked distortion correction, ultra-compact viewing optics, wide fields of view, high dynamic range, occlusion-capable AR, holographic displays, saccade-contingent rendering, and perspective-correct mixed reality passthrough.

In this presentation we’ll detail how perception science has continually underpinned these developments. In some cases, past vision science literature has provided a starting foundation, offering clear requirements for proof-of-concept prototypes; in others, the literature is lacking, requiring this system-oriented team to undertake new studies in vision science. For Stanford SCIEN attendees, we hope to inspire more researchers to focus on applying perceptually-driven design principles to AR/VR display systems, accelerating the field towards passing the visual Turing test.

Speaker Biography: Douglas is the Senior Director of Display Systems Research at Meta’s Reality Labs Research, where he leads investigations into advanced display and imaging technologies. He is also an Affiliate Instructor at the University of Washington CSE Department, where he is currently teaching a course on building AR headsets from scratch. His prior research has focused on head-mounted displays, glasses-free 3D displays, light field cameras, and active illumination for 3D reconstruction and interaction. He received a B.S. in Applied Physics with Honors from Caltech in 2002 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Brown University in 2006 and 2010, respectively. He was a Senior Research Scientist at Nvidia Research from 2012 to 2014, a Postdoctoral Associate at the MIT Media Lab from 2010 to 2012, and an Assistant Research Staff Member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory from 2002 to 2005