3D-vision Archives | Research & Innovation

NSERC awards 91��ɫ research centres $3.3 million

fmaquito — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Programs in vision research and atmospheric chemistry and physics will provide enhanced research and training for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows

If you’re working in 3D film or aerospace engineering, what impact do the latest developments in brain and vision research have on your industry’s practices? What if you’re drafting government policy on air quality control and need expertise in how the latest atmospheric chemistry and physics findings translate into plans and policy?

Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows at 91��ɫ have new options to pursue the research and applied dimensions of these and other questions, thanks to $3.3 million in funding from the (NSERC).

httpv://youtu.be/OtRWua59EPU

The funding, provided through NSERC’s $29.6 million investment over six years in the Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) Grants program, will support two new training programs in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, each valued at $1.65 million over the period.

Professor Hugh Wilson

Students and fellows enrolled in each program will gain experience in basic and applied research, along with the practical and professional skills needed to successfully transition to research careers in the academic, industry or government sectors.

Professor Hugh Wilson in the Faculty of Science & Engineering’s Department of Biology will lead the Vision Science and Applications program. Based in the internationally-recognized (CVR), the program focuses on vision-based information technologies that require optimal information displays to ensure accurate human interpretation of data are playing an increasingly important role in many economic sectors.

Key applications include:

3D digital media (e.g., 3D film, geographical databases, autocad systems)
Aerospace (e.g., cockpit technologies, search-and-rescue)
Face and scene analysis technologies (e.g., facial biometrics)
Visual health and assessment technologies (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), perimetry)

The Vision Science and Applications team includes 25 researchers at seven international universities and 10 partner organizations, including , the and . At 91��ɫ, a total of 10 professors affiliated with CVR will lend their expertise to the project. The program will enrol four students in its first year and 16 students in each successive year.

Professor Jochen Rudolph

Professors and in the Faculty of Science & Engineering’s Department of Chemistry will lead the Training Program for Integrating Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics from Earth to Space (IACPES) program. Jointly based in 91��ɫ’s (CAC) and the Centre for Research in Earth & Space Science (CRESS), the program’s interdisciplinary focus will give students an integrated understanding of atmospheric chemistry and physics from earth into space.

Key applications include:

measuring and modelling atmospheric change
examining air quality and health issues
monitoring changes in the arctic atmosphere
detecting sources of greenhouse gases
measuring Earth’s changing atmosphere from space
exploring and understanding other planets’ atmospheres
developing the policy implications of atmospheric science

The IACPES team includes 11 applicants at six universities and 23 collaborators at 10 partner organizations, including , the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, the (NOAA) in Boulder, Colo., several industries and two premier research institutes in Germany. The program will create 21 places for undergraduate students, master’s students, PhD students and postdoctoral fellows in its first year, with over 200 places created over the successive five years.

httpv://youtu.be/6YlFv0Xd9no

Professor Robert McLaren

“By securing two of only 18 projects awarded to universities across Canada, 91��ɫ builds on its strong track record in leading large-scale, interdisciplinary collaborative research projects,” said Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. “The programs will provide our innovative research centres – CVR, CRESS and CAC – with a competitive advantage in attracting excellent graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who wish to pursue careers in the applications of vision science or atmospheric chemistry and physics. NSERC’s CREATE program strengthens the role of universities in training the highly-qualified people needed in today’s scientific knowledge economy.”

“NSERC’s CREATE Program helps graduating students become highly sought-after professional researchers in the natural sciences and engineering, both in Canada and abroad,” said Suzanne Fortier, president of NSERC. “The program not only helps improve the skill set of Canada’s next-generation of research talent, but it also helps to support their retention in the workforce.”

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer

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Professor Katherine Knight's documentary on Wanda Koop to open Reel Artists Film Festival

fmaquito — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 10:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ visual arts Professor Katherine Knight’s documentary film about influential Winnipeg artist in some ways mirrors the style found in Koop’s paintings: full of colour and precise, playing with the idea of glancing and observation, and entering into a world where the real and the abstract co-exist.

The world premiere of the 52-minute documentary KOOP: The Art of Wanda Koop will open the 8th annual on tomorrow at The Royal Conservatory, TELUS Centre for Performance & Learning, Koerner Hall, 273 Bloor St. W., in Toronto. A Q&A with Knight, the film’s director and co-producer, along with Koop and critic and urban planner Jane Perdue will follow the screening. The pre-screening reception will start at 6:30pm, the screening at 7pm and a celebration at 8:30pm. KOOP will screen again in Calgary on March 24.

Watch the documentary's trailer on .

Knight’s film looks at Koop as she prepares massive new works depicting archetypal cities and familiar yet disquieting landscapes for two 25-year retrospectives, one at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and another – Wanda Koop: On the Edge of Experience – at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa until May 15. She is an artist who questions how and what people see or notice, and in turn, shows through her art what people missed with their first glance, as well as what remains out of sight.

Right: Katherine Knight

A documentary, filming for Koop began in June as Knight, an award-winning photographer known for evocative landscapes with a strong narrative atmosphere, cinematographer and 91��ɫ alumna Marcia Connolly (MFA ’10) and embarked upon a week-long trip on a freighter along the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City to Port Cartier. Travel has often provided inspiration for Koop. This voyage along one of Canada’s most significant and fabled waterways not only provided a shared experience for the artist and the filmmakers, it also allowed the audience to share in some of the raw visual materials Koop uses to create her art.

"I was making a documentary about an artist who didn't want to be filmed painting," says Knight. So instead, she filmed Koop as she gathered inspiration. "It was about putting the audience into the framework that the artist works in. So the audience can actually travel along with the artist."

The examination of the visual continues as the film looks at the science of vision, colour and perception. It places the audience in the , where Koop has her vision tested by 91��ɫ senior research scientist Olivera Karanovic and Laurie Wilcox, graduate program director in the Department of Psychology, in the 3D Vision Research lab to take a look at how she sees – she apparently has great 3D vision.

Left: Artist Wanda Koop has her vision checked in the 91��ɫ Vision Research lab in the opening scene of the film Koop

The artist’s studio as a factory of the imagination also plays a role in the work created, and the film explores this, taking the audience into Koop’s newly renovated factory, where she makes, archives and markets her artwork. There, hundreds of paintings, thousands of sketches and tables full of the painter’s tools contribute to the visual and physical space.

"I'm really interested in making documentaries about artists that get inside the creative process," says Knight, a longtime friend of Koop and fan of her art. Koop has won several national and international awards for her artistic achievements and was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2006. In 1998, she founded Art City as a storefront art centre in Winnipeg. The goal is to bring together contemporary visual artists and inner-city youth to explore the creative process.

Right: Wanda Koop's studio

Several alumni worked on the documentary, including project editor Jared Raab (BFA Spec. Hon. ’07), who was declared one of the by the Toronto Star. Raab will begin shooting a feature in March with alumnus Matt Johnson (BFA). The score for Koop is by Montreal-based composer Sam Shalabi, who worked on Knight’s 2009 documentary Pretend Not to See Me: The Art of Colette Urban, which was awarded special mention at the Ecofilm Festival in Rhodos, Greece, in June 2010. Pretend Not to See Me will screen at 2011, Thursday, March 17, at 5pm at the Rainbow Cinemas, Market Square, 80 Front St. E. (at Jarvis) in Toronto.

Left: Wanda Koop on the freight boat

Knight co-founded Site(Media)inc. with David Craig in 2006 with a passion to make documentaries and short films. Its first film, Annie Pootoogook, was commissioned by Bravo Canada and Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. A professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts, Knight has exhibited her photographs extensively in solo and group shows across Canada and in the United States. Her works are in many public and corporate collections, including the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Banff Centre and The Canada Council Art Bank. She was awarded the Canada Council's Duke and Duchess of 91��ɫ Prize in Photography in 2000 in recognition of the excellence of her work.

Tickets to the opening night of KOOP are $175 per person and can be purchased by visiting the website or calling 416-368-8854 ext. 101.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Professor Robert Allison speaks to Discovery.com about effect of 3-D vision on humans

fmaquito — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

The future of entertainment is 3-D, wrote Discovery News June 8. Their article included comments from Professor Robert Allison, a researcher with the and part of the 91��ɫ-led :

But while moviegoers have flocked to recent 3-D offerings, film fans also have had mixed reviews about their experiences, with some reporting headaches, nausea, vision problems and motion sickness. With 3-D leaping to the small screen, clinical researchers and tech experts want to know whether the special effect might damage eyes in the process.

“The problem with 3-D displays is that unlike the real world, only a subset of the information that normally informs us about the 3-D structure of the world is present,” said , a computer science professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Science & Engineering who specializes in 3-D vision and technology.

And processing that incomplete visual information does, in fact, impact our eyes.

Better technology is alleviating the problem.

Allison also noted that recent 3-D movies have gotten better at reducing eye strain by mimicking our natural stereoscopic vision. “People are becoming less gimmick-oriented in terms of 3-D content,” Allison explained. “There’s more emphasis on a comfortable viewing experience where stereopsis enriches the experience rather than defining it, and recent movies like Avatar or Up have been very easy on the eyes.”

The complete article is . For more information about visit the project's website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Researchers developing next generation of data analysis and visualization tools

fmaquito — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

$11.5 million interdisciplinary project includes computer scientists, vision scientists, designers, artists and social scientists at 91��ɫ, OCAD and U of T, with 14 industry partners

How do you look at millions of genomic patterns and see the diagnostic implications? How do you assimilate satellite data to better predict and visualize the effects of global warming, pollution, and weather patterns? How can you chart the global migration of millions of people under slavery? How do you assess the impact millions of blog entries have had on the print media economy? How do you sift global intelligence reports to identify the real threats?

Each day, humanity poses thousands of similar questions as we produce massive data sets in every field − but as the data grows, the challenge becomes translating this data for the human senses and delivering the best analysis to solve real-world problems.

The Centre for Innovation in Information Visualization and Data-Driven Design (CIV-DDD), led by 91��ɫ in partnership with the (OCAD), promises to develop the next generation of data discovery, design, and visualization techniques by developing new computational tools, representational strategies, and interfaces.

The $11.5 million five-year project brings together a unique multidisciplinary team of over 50 researchers from 91��ɫ, OCAD, the University of Toronto, 14 industry partners, and significant international collaborators.

(left), Canada Research Chair in Computational Vision and Distinguished Research Professor of Vision Science at 91��ɫ, is the project’s principal investigator. , professor of artificial intelligence and data mining in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, will co-lead 91��ɫ’s team of 14 researchers, who include , professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, and , Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture and associate professor of film in the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Sara Diamond, visualization design researcher and president of the Ontario College of Art & Design, will lead OCAD’s team of 12 researchers, who include Vladimir Spicanovic, dean of the Faculty of Art, and Greg van Alstyne, professor in the Faculty of Design and director of Research, Strategic Innovation Lab.

has provided over $3.8 million in funding through the Ontario Research Fund-Research Excellence Program; industry partners will contribute over $3.6 million, with the remaining $4.1 million coming from the project’s institutional partners.

“Humans’ capacity to interpret sensory stimuli is limited, which is why the human processing strategy is to attend to the relevant and ignore the irrelevant,” says Tsotsos. “Determining what’s relevant is a key task. Equally important is discovering how best to present such data in a form that is quickly and effectively understood. By combining our team’s expertise in computer science, design, digital media, visual perceptual science, fine arts, and the social sciences, CIV-DDD will discover and provide new visualizations for underlying patterns, processes, and relationships within data sets. These in turn will suggest new research directions and applications, laying the foundation for a new wave of knowledge creation and technological products.”

CIV-DDD formalizes many existing research collaborations, both within 91��ɫ’s faculties and departments and among researchers at 91��ɫ, OCAD, and U of T. “In the new paradigm of data-driven discovery, art and design researchers have a profound role to play in partnership with scientists, making the invisible visible, heralding a new era of knowledge, cultural creation, and technological products,” said Diamond. “This preeminent research hub for the development of next-generation data visualization techniques is unique in its level of interdisciplinary fire power, strong collaboration with end-users and international links. It aggregates and extends much successful collaboration amongst the researchers, and between OCAD and 91��ɫ.”

Many techniques and technologies developed by research groups associated with CIV-DDD will become resources for the entire team as they focus on new data-driven design and information visualization solutions in four thematic areas:

bioinformatics and medicine
fine and performing arts
engineering and physical sciences
humanities and social sciences

Collaboration between industry and academia is crucial to the project’s success. “Platform Computing is honoured to support the CIV-DDD project and provide the students and researchers at 91��ɫ and the OCAD with cutting-edge technologies to explore and create the next generation of visualization solutions and services and help them tackle scientific, social and human challenges,” said Jingwen Wang, vice-president, products, at . “Collaboration and information sharing are fundamental to academic research and Platform products enable researchers and students to easily collaborate and manage data and resources to capture, simulate and analyze their results.”

CIV-DDD’s industry partners highlight its wide applicability across sectors, including:

Mass media and communications studies, ethnography, and cultural studies −
Enterprise and knowledge management businesses −
Technology service providers − , , and
Physics −
Sustainable, intelligent systems, and green technology −
Computer and communication technologies − , , and
Entertainment and Web-related industries − , , and
Research and innovative presentation −
Business intelligence work − and
Mobile technology and applications developers − Zameen
Medicine and bioinformatics − U of T’s , the , and McMaster University’s

“CIV-DDD responds both to a dramatic paradigm shift in the health, social and economic challenges facing Canadians and the need for more research capacity and state-of-the-art infrastructure in this region,” said Stan Shapson, 91��ɫ’s vice-president Research & Innovation. “It also builds on the existing strengths of 91��ɫ’s , the Institute for Research on Learning Technologies in the Faculty of Education, and in the Faculty of Fine Arts, among others.

“By leading the Consortium on New Media, Creative, and Entertainment R&D in the Toronto Region (CONCERT), 91��ɫ and its partner universities and industries identified the preconditions necessary to develop a high-end visualization industry in Ontario. This unique collaboration will help fulfill one of CONCERT’s long-term objectives, which was to grow the region’s entertainment, screen-based and other innovation-driven creative industries into a globally competitive cluster.”

CIV-DDD will also support Ontario’s economy by producing innovative technology for commercialization, such as new:

data-mining algorithms
3D-vision and 3D-modeling technologies
data-display tools and protocols
visualization-design methods and techniques
data-inquiry paradigms
user-friendly interfaces that can be scaled to a variety of screen displays
new aesthetics and research practices

“We’re proud of the cutting-edge work that our researchers do at 91��ɫ and the wealth and jobs they create in 91��ɫ West and across Ontario,” said , MPP for 91��ɫ West. “New discoveries will continue to be made and we want those people, those ideas and those jobs right here in our community.”

CIV-DDD is one of 21 projects funded by the Ontario Research Fund–Research Excellence program, which has provided almost $69.5 million to support more than 214 researchers in seven cities across Ontario. The Ontario Research Fund is a key part of the province’s Innovation Agenda, a $3.2 million strategy designed to move world-class research from the lab to the global marketplace in key areas such as life sciences, digital media, and green energy to ensure Ontario will be among the 21^st Century’s winning economies. The Research Excellence program helps develop Ontario’s research talent while ensuring Ontario researchers have the operating funding they need to undertake world-leading projects.

For a full list of funded projects, visit MRI’s .

91��ɫ’s researchers:

John Tsotsos, Canada Research Chair in Computational Vision, distinguished research professor of vision science, Faculty of Science & Engineering, and member of the Centre for Vision Research (CVR)
Nick Cercone, professor of artificial intelligence and data mining, Faculty of Science & Engineering
Amir Asif, associate professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering
Caitlin Fisher, Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture and assistant professor of film, Faculty of Fine Arts
Robert Allison, associate professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering
Melanie Baljko, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering
James Elder, associate professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and a member of CVR
Jimmy Huang, associate professor of information technology, Faculty of Science & Engineering
Michael Jenkin, professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering and a member of CVR
Jennifer Jenson, associate professor of pedagogy and technology, Faculty of Education
Paul E. Lovejoy, distinguished research professor in the Department of History and Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History
Don Sinclair, professor and coordinator of Fine Arts Cultural Studies, Faculty of Fine Arts
Wolfgang Stuerzlinger, associate professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering, and a member of CVR
Nell Tenhaaf, associate professor, Department of Visual Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, and associate dean, Graduate Studies, Research, Planning, in the Faculty of Fine Arts.
Laurie Wilcox, associate professor of psychology and biology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and associate director of CVR
Richard Wildes, associate professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering

OCAD’s researchers:

Sara Diamond, visualization design researcher and president of the Ontario College of Art & Design
Vladimir Spicanovic, dean, Faculty of Art
Greg van Alstyne, professor, Faculty of Design and director of research, Strategic Innovation Lab
Patricio Davila, assistant professor, Faculty of Design
Paula Gardner, associate professor, Faculty of Liberal Studies
Julian Goss, professor, Faculty of Design, and chair of Industrial Design
Anda Kubis, associate professor, Faculty of Art, and chair of Drawing and Painting
Martha Ladly, associate professor and director of the Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design Program
Francis LeBouthillier, sculpture and installation artist and chair of Sculpture and Installation
Laura Millard, associate professor, Faculty of Art
Luke Painter, assistant professor, Faculty of Art
Barbara Rauch, assistant professor, Digital Futures Initiative, Faculty of Design
Suzanne Stein, associate professor, Digital Futures Initiative, Faculty of Design

U of T’s researchers:

Ravin Balakrishnan, associate professor of Computer Science and Canada Research Chair in Human-Centred Interfaces in the Department of Computer Science
Karan Singh, associate professor of Computer Science, Department of Computer Science

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer. Photos courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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