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November 2018 Event: Computer Vision at Magic Leap
Jean-Yves Bouguet
Sr. Director, Computer Vision Magic Leap
Jean-Yves Bouguet has been leading the computer vision group at Magic Leap since 2013. He presented past, present and future research and development work in the computer vision group at Magic Leap leading to the Magic Leap One. Jean-Yves Bouguet provided some insights on the technical challenges that the team of researchers and engineers are tackling to make computer vision work for a see-through wearable Mixed Reality device.
The evening began with a dinner with the speaker and the Silicon Valley SIGGRAPH volunteers. The event had pizza, snacks and networking for attendees. During Jean-Yves engaging presentation he took audience questions about the technology. Afterwards attendees were treated to hands-on demos of the Magic Leap device and some swag. As an extra bonus, Nicole Lazzaro, CEO of XEODesign showed off some of her game content on her Magic Leap device. For most attendees this was the first time they were able to see and try the Magic Leap One for themselves.
Everyone who attended was extremely excited to get to experience the amazing Magic Leap content for themselves and to learn about job opportunities. The technological journey that led to the development of the Magic Leap One was fascinating to attendees and good, hard questions were asked by the audience. Jean-Yves was an engaging speaker and it was wonderful for him and his team to come out and present at the local ACM SIGGRAPH chapter. Overall a fantastic event!
Photo Credit: Alesh Jancarik
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Postmortem for Other Chapter Leaders
Hands-on events can be great fun for attendees especially when coupled with a technological presentation. They are more of a logistical challenge, but it was well worth it. Here are the lessons learned.
It was important to make sure every attendee had an opportunity to try the Magic Leap One without everyone standing in line instead of networking. We wanted to make sure that the demos did not delay the start of the presentation or happen during it. We recommend using a signup sheet or similar line management tool. At the start of the presentation the demo was closed down until after Q&A of the presentation. By going from the signup sheet we didn’t have a mad rush of people getting back in line or lining up during the end of the presentation.
During setup some AV issues occurred, but the chapter officers were prepared with contact information for the venue AV expert and were able to solve it quickly. Be sure to have contact info on hand for key people.
A lot of pizza was ordered for the event. The pizza order is done based on the number of RSVPs received, but need to track what percentage of those who RSVP typically attend the event and eat the food for better accuracy. Financially better to have some people miss out on pizza than to have lots of leftovers. Also incentive for attendees to arrive on time.
Hands-On Gameplan
- Be prepared to successfully setup the demo at the venue.
- Limit the time of each demo to ensure everyone has a chance to try it.
- Have a plan in place to keep attendees flowing through the demo.
- Questions and discussions about the demo should be handled by someone other than the person monitoring the demo so as not to disrupt the throughput.