<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p><br>
</p>
<p>For the benefit of our lab visitors who may not be on the
relevant mailing lists, here is a summary of the degree defenses
this week with Four Eyes involvement: <br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Chris Hall, today, Tuesday, 10:00am, PhD defense <br>
</p>
<p>Alan Buzdar, today, Tuesday, 1:30pm, MS defense</p>
<p>Yantsey Tsai, Thursday, 9am, MS defense</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>All three defenses will be in HFH 1132, and everyone is welcome!</p>
<p>Cheers,</p>
<p> Tobias<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>
<blockquote type="cite">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><span
style="font-size:18.0pt">PhD Defense</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span
style="font-size:18.0pt">Christopher Hall</span></b><u
style="text-underline:words"><span style="font-size:18.0pt"></span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><span
style="font-size:18.0pt">Tuesday, June 13<sup>th</sup>, 2017</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center" align="center"><span
style="font-size:18.0pt">10:00am – HFH 1132</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span
style="font-size:13.0pt"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span
style="font-size:13.0pt">Committee:</span></b><span
style="font-size:13.0pt"> Tobias Hollerer (Chair), Tevfik
Bultan, Chandra Krintz</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.0pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span
style="font-size:13.0pt">Title:</span></b><span
style="font-size:13.0pt"> <span
style="mso-bidi-font-weight:bold">A New Human-Readability
Infrastructure: Structured Data as a Visual Programming
Language</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:13.0pt"><br>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Abstract:</b></span><b
style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span
style="font-size:13.0pt"> </span></b> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt;
margin-left:0in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt">In the 1960's,
computers used electromechanical typewriters to interface
with humans. That legacy is alive today. Formats that need
to be able to have a direct relationship with users have
been stuck with essentially one option - encoding their
structure indirectly via <i>ad hoc</i> patterns of co-opted
printable characters.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt;
margin-left:0in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt;
margin-left:0in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt">We present
Infra, a new baseline medium for representing data. With
Infra, arbitrarily-complex structured data can be encoded,
viewed, edited and processed, all within a parsed paradigm.
It is suitable for the full range of information modalities,
from free-form input, to compact schema-conforming
binary-encoded structures. With its own equivalent of a text
editor and text field widget, Infra is designed to target
the domain currently dominated by flat character strings
while simultaneously enabling the expression of
sub-structure, inter-reference, dynamic dependencies,
abstraction, computation, and context (metadata).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt;
margin-left:0in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt;
margin-left:0in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt">We show how
the new level of organization Infra brings to data makes a
new non-textual programming paradigm viable. Programs that
modify data can now be embedded into the data itself.
Furthermore, these programs can often be authored by
demonstration. We argue that Infra can be used to improve
existing software projects and that bringing direct
authoring and human readability to a binary data paradigm
could have rippling ramifications on the computing
landscape.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt;
margin-left:0in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt;
margin-left:0in"><span style="font-size:13.0pt">Everyone
welcome.</span></p>
</blockquote>
<br>
</p>
<p>========================================================</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>
<blockquote type="cite">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;background:white"
align="center"><span
style="font-size:24.0pt;mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times
New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">MS Project
Defense</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family:
Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;background:white"
align="center"><b><span
style="font-size:24.0pt;mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times
New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Alan Buzdar</span></b><span
style="mso-ascii-font-family:
Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;background:white"
align="center"><span
style="font-size:24.0pt;mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times
New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Tuesday, June
13th, 2017</span><span
style="mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times
New Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;background:white"
align="center"><span
style="font-size:24.0pt;mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times
New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">1:30pm – HFH
1132</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family:
Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt;
margin-left:0in;tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt
229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt
549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><span
style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> </span><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Courier;mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier
New";mso-fareast-language: EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:-27.0pt;margin-bottom:
.1pt;margin-left:0in;tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt
229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt
549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Committee: </span></b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt; font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Tobias Hollerer
(Chair), Matthew Turk</span><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Courier;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier
New";mso-fareast-language:EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt; font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> </span><span
style="mso-ascii-font-family:
Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Title:</span></b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> Bringing
Teleconferencing Into Virtual Reality</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Abstract:</span></b><span
style="mso-ascii-font-family:
Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="mso-ascii-font-family:
Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:14.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Virtual Reality
is increasingly entering the mainstream and finding a place
in consumer households, from high-end devices such as the
Oculus Rift and HTC Vive down to more affordable mobile
solutions like Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard. As VR
becomes prevalent, traditional applications are moving to VR
to take advantage of the potential for increased
interactivity and immersion. In consumer surveys, a large
percentage of Millennials responds positively towards VR.
However, VR is still cost prohibitive for many users, as
well as impractical in many situations, for reasons of
hardware requirements or social acceptance. Not much work
has gone into how to represent a traditional webcam user to
VR users in a way unique to the medium. This project
explores novel methods of displaying a 2D webcam feed to a
VR power user with minimal setup and overhead for the webcam
user.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:14.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:14.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">The first
approach explored is segmenting the user out of their webcam
video feed in real-time and placing them onto a planar
polygon in VR. This process consists of efficient real-time
segmentation of the webcam feed and the completely distinct
problem of how to display that segmented image in VR. The
second approach explored is attempting to turn the 2D image
into a realistic 3D avatar representation of the user. This
too requires tackling an image processing portion as well as
HCI decisions about representation. Finally, after exploring
the different solutions, we address their potential
limitations as well as practical aspects such as the
hardware/software architecture for a system that could
handle such video calls.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:14.0pt; font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:14.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Everyone
welcome!</span></p>
</blockquote>
<br>
</p>
<p>===============================================<br>
</p>
<p>
<blockquote type="cite">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;background:white"
align="center"><span
style="font-size:24.0pt;mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times
New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">MS Project
Defense</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family:
Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;background:white"
align="center"><b><span
style="font-size:24.0pt;mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times
New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Yantsey Tsai</span></b><span
style="mso-ascii-font-family:
Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;background:white"
align="center"><span
style="font-size:24.0pt;mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times
New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Thursday, June
15th, 2017</span><span
style="mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times
New Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;background:white"
align="center"><span
style="font-size:24.0pt;mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times
New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">9:00am – HFH
1132</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family:
Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt;
margin-left:0in;tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt
229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt
549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><span
style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> </span><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Courier;mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier
New";mso-fareast-language: EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:-27.0pt;margin-bottom:
.1pt;margin-left:0in;tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt
229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt
549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New
Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Committee: </span></b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt; font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Matthew Turk
(Co-Chair), Tobias Hollerer, (Co-Chair)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:-27.0pt;margin-bottom:
.1pt;margin-left:0in;tab-stops:45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt
229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt
549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt; background:white"><span
style="mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:
"Times New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Title:</span></b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> Gazelocking
for Gaze Correction in Videoconferencing</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Abstract:</span></b><span
style="mso-ascii-font-family:
Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="mso-ascii-font-family:
Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">During
videoconferencing, there is an inherent inability for
participants to be engaged due to differences in the
physical locations of the webcam and the screen.
Participants appear as if they are looking down on each
other instead of directly at each other. To remedy this,
real time gaze correction systems have emerged to give
videoconferencing participants the illusion of eye contact.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-size:16.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Our work
improves a previous gaze correction system that required
users to manually look at the webcam to capture the eye
appearance and perform eye replacement. We automate this
process by exploring various methods to classify direct gaze
(known as gazelocking). We have implemented a system based
on image processing techniques and machine learning to solve
the gazelocking problem. This system is robust to a variety
of factors, including distance to camera, lighting, eye
shape, and more. Such a system can be used to replace the
manual capture on the old gaze correction system, but also
has several additional applications in the HCI realm.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span
style="font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US"> </span></p>
<span style="font-size:16.0pt;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New
Roman";
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US">Everyone welcome!</span></blockquote>
<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Tobias Hollerer
Professor, Department of Computer Science
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5110
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:holl@cs.ucsb.edu">holl@cs.ucsb.edu</a>, Office: (805)284-9395, Fax: (805)893-8553 </pre>
</body>
</html>