ECS Seminar Series: Visualising Complexity

Dr Nick Holliman, Durham University will be speaking on Wednesday 4th April 2012 from 15.00-16.00 in 59.1257 (seminar room 1).

Nick Holliman is a Reader in The School of Engineering and Computing Sciences at Durham University, UK and is best known for his work over the last sixteen years investigating the fundamental challenges of stereoscopic 3D visualisation. This work has included working with psychologists to understand how the human visual system processes binocular information, geometrically modeling binocular vision to capture empirical comfort limits, developing new computational algorithms for the control of binocular image disparity, and demonstrating how these algorithms work in practice in software tools and 3D visualizations. Prior to joining Durham University in 2001, he was principal researcher at Sharp Laboratories of Europe, in Oxford, England where he led the software team in the 3D imaging technology group. He filed patents on stereoscopic image generation, 3D displays, 3D cameras, and high performance head tracking systems. At Durham he has worked closely with leading astronomers and cosmologists, resulting in two award winning stereoscopic 3D films produced for exhibits at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibitions of 2005, 2009, and 2010.

He will describe current inter-disciplinary research projects at the Durham Visualization Laboratory in binocular imaging, including; collaborations with psychologists to investigate the response of the eye to artificial binocular stimulus, projects with display manufacturers to empirically evaluate display performance, the development of new algorithms for stereoscopic rendering in computer science and conclude by describing collaborative visualization projects with cosmologists, earth scientists, medics and artists.