Wenguang Xu

Teleconference (Ken Perlin’s R&D project) 

Unity3d programmer      August,2014

 

An R&D project using Xbox Kinect v2 and Unity3d with the goal of creating a more immersive teleconference experience. The professor of this project is Ken Perlin from New York University Media Research Lab. Ken is the creator of Perlin Noise and his turbulence procedural texturing techniques, which is widely used in feature films and television.

 

My Roles

Unity3d programmer: Collaborate with other programmers to implement Kinect2 based video chatting system, gesture based communication system and other generalist programming work.

 

What I did

-Brain storming together with Ken, other professors form MIT, NYU and other team members to design and implement a better solution for this application.

 

-Implemented hand gesture based drawing function into this project.

 

-Helped with user interface and screen splitting function in this project.

 

Challenges

-This is an R&D project using recently came out Kinect2, which requires us to learn and use its API in a very short period of time.

 

-We need to finish the prototype in 1 week and display it in Ken’s workshop so we have to work under time pressure.

 

-Effective communication with professors and team members who I haven’t worked with before. And I also need to get use to their working style very quickly.

 

What I learned

-How to use Kinect 2 in Unity.

 

-I learned how those computer scientists look at problem and solve it.

 

-Also learned a lot about Computer Vision, the newest technology and future trend of it.

 

-Learned a lot about time management and how to work under pressure.