This home page and the CS291I-XR Slack Channel will be used as centers of communication for the class (invite on Canvas). Homework submission and general messaging will occur through the CS291-I Canvas, including announcement of remote class lectures and meetings. We may also make use of other tools (Gradescope, Discord) if there is demand.
While the webpage provides you with up-to-date information about assignments and what is currently going on in class, the Canvas serves as the main coordination and submission site, and Slack as an open communication forum: questions, answers, suggestions, etc.
Class Hours: Tue/Thu, 03:00-4:50pm Class Location: Phelps 3526 Announcements will be made on Canvas and Slack. Potential crashers should come to the first classes!
Instructor: Tobias Höllerer Office Hours: Wed, 4:30pm-5:30pm, or by appointment Office: 2155 Harold Frank Hall, (805) 284 9395 e-mail: holl@cs...
Mixed and Augmented Reality, now often subsumed under the overarching term XR: Extended Reality, has been an active research field since the 1990s. It has recently gained significant popularity because of the possibility of being implemented on smartphones, because of new emerging head-worn platforms (including the recent Apple "VisionPro" device), and because of its unique approach of offering context-based computing directly in a person's field of vision. Augmented Reality is the concept of overlaying computer-generated information on top of the physical world. Mixed Reality is a bit broader and subsumes the fields of Augmented Reality, Augmented Virtuality, and Virtual Reality. Games such as Niantic's Pokemon GO as well as various Face filter apps and Snap Lenses have popularized the concept, but much more is possible. In particular, applied machine learning concepts can play a strong part in this research area. Virtually all the major players in the technology sector today invest more or less heavily in this paradigm, as the expectation is that it may well be the future of mobile personal information access. This class provides a hands-on introduction to these novel interface technologies.
This is an advanced research-oriented course. Programming experience and some knowledge of computer graphics and computer vision concepts is expected. What is of utmost importance is the students' readiness to self-motivatedly explore novel research areas!
A special focus area this quarter, promoted by recent developments in the field of HCI, will be the integration of visual computing technologies with generative and discriminative AI techniques, such as Large Language Models, GANs or Diffusion models, or ML/CV for scene understanding and reconstruction.
There will be a series of AR/VR space creation, ideation, coding, or research paper presentation assignments that lead up to individual or group class projects. We will continuously assign reading material from various book chapters and papers that we will make available. There may be one exam (in week 6 or 7) or a series of quizzes. Here is how your final grade will be determined:
In case you disagree with any grade, submit your grievance in writing (email) to the grader responsible, explaining and documenting your case.
All assignments are due at midnight on the scheduled due date. To make the deadlines more manageable, each student will be allowed three ``late days'' during the quarter for which lateness will not be penalized. Late days may be applied to all assignments but not the final project! Your late days may be used as you see fit -- one or multiple per assignment -- but once you used a late day it's good and gone, you cannot reapply it to another assignment. Anything turned in after 12:00:00am until midnight the next day is one day late. Every day thereafter that an assignment is late, including weekends and holidays, counts as an additional late day.
Absolutely no late work will be accepted after the deadline if you have used up all your late days. If you're not done on time you must turn in what you have to receive partial credit. There will be no exceptions from this rule. Please make sure you understand this policy.
When making use of your late days, the online submission provides the timestamp that counts.
We will strictly enforce UCSB's academic misconduct policies. We use electronic tools to detect plagiarism among submitted homework solutions and sources from the internet. Read these guidelines before beginning each programming assignment. Any form of plagiarism, collusion, or cheating will result in an "F" in this course and may result in suspension from UCSB for two quarters. When in doubt about any forms of receiving help on your assignments, ask us!
I would like the course to be informative and enjoyable. Let me know what you find good and interesting about the course. Let me know sooner if you feel something could be improved. See me (in virtual office hours), message on Slack, or send an e-mail.
Wk |
Class |
Date |
Assigned |
Topics |
Handout |
HW out |
HW due |
|
1 |
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C1 |
Tue |
Apr 02 |
Class Requirements, Policies. Collection of Student Survey Definition of AR Definition of Generative AI |
Student Questionnaire
H1: Mixed and Augmented Reality Survey Google Drive folder with several more survey papers |
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C2 | Thu | Apr 04 | H1, H2 |
Applications of Mixed and Augmented Reality HW1: Testing different MR-enabling toolkits
|
Slides: XR Definition & Motivation |
|
||
2 |
C3 |
Tue |
Apr 09 |
HW1: Testing different MR-enabling toolkits Discussion of example class projects
|
|
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C4 |
Thu |
Apr 11 |
Tools discussion |
|
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3 |
C5 |
Tue |
Apr 16 |
Chapter 2 ARBook |
|
XR Conference Series: Slides: Types of Research Contribs |
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|
Wed | Apr. 17 | HW2 | ||||||
C6 |
Thu |
Apr 18 |
HW3 AR Displays / Tracking |
Sample Research Paper Submission AR Book |
|
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4 |
C7 |
Tue |
Apr 23 |
Chapters 3,4,5, ARBook | Literature Review |
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Wed | Apr 24 | HW3 | ||||||
C8 |
Thu |
Apr 25 |
Chapters 3,4,5, ARBook | XR Device Demos |
|
|
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5 |
C9 | Tue | Apr 30 |
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HW4 AR Displays (2) / Tracking |
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Wed | May 1 | HW4a | ||||||
C10 |
Thu |
May 02 |
Technology Explorations
|
|
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6 |
C11 | Tue | May 07 |
|
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Wed | May 08 | HW4b |
C12 |
Thu |
May 09 |
HW5 (Project Milestone) Discussion: Project MVPs |
HW5 | |
7 |
C13 |
Tue |
May 14 |
Discussion: Project MVPs
|
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C14 |
Thu |
May 16 |
Discussion: Project MVPs CHI 2024 |
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8 |
C15 | Tue | May 21 | CHI 2024 |
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Wed | HW5 |
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C16 |
Thu |
May 23 |
Interaction examples
|
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9 |
C17 |
Tue |
May 28 |
Visual Coherence Confluence of Graphics and Vision (the ultimate XR experience) |
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C18 |
Thu |
May 30 |
Visual/Haptic Coherence |
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10 |
Sun | Jun 02 |
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C19 |
Tue |
Jun 04 |
Research: Strategies for Evaluation Scene Modeling / Collaboration / Authoring |
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C20 |
Thu |
Jun 06 |
Discussion of Project Presentations and Paper Writeups Future of MR Research and Deployment |
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11 |
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Final Slot
|
Wed |
Jun 12 |
12 noon-3:00pm |
Project Presentations |
Every student taking this class needs to fill in the Student Info Questionnaire
For HW assignment 1, discussed in class session 2, you have to submit an experience report on XR tool installation/testing three times, each for a different exploration! Your first questionnaire must be submitted by Mon, 04/08, 11:59:59pm (we will discuss first results in Tuesday's class), the second one by end of the day Wed, 04/10 (11:59:59pm) .
For HW assignment 2, please document a thorough literature search in a writeup (overall, I would expect it to be about 2 papges long, but it can vary), and submit it as a PDF on Canvas. Also submit a spreadsheet with all the papers you considered. Submission deadline is Wednesday, 04/17, 11:59:59pm
HW assignment 3, is a paper review exercise (loosely modeled after peer review in the field) that will be due Wed., April 24th, 11:59:59pm
HW assignment 4 is a two-part assignment that will get you right into the middle of your quarter project work, with due dates on Wed., May 1st (for parts 1a and 1b) and Wed., May 8, 11:59:59pm (for part 2)