Speaker: 

Michael Gourlay
Principal Lead Software Development Engineer, Microsoft on HoloLens in the Environmental Understanding Group

Title:

Incorporating Environmental Understanding into Computer-Human Interaction

Abstract:

Recent developments in mobile and wearable technology introduced additional sensors and processing capabilities that permit computers to understand users’ environments. This burgeoning field of environment understanding coupled with ubiquitous computing changes how programmers and designers create interaction modes between computers and humans. The established interface paradigm must evolve to take into account interactions between computers and environments that synergize with existing human-computer interface modalities. Furthermore it introduces additional complexities to measuring and accomplishing end user satisfaction. This talk will survey techniques for environment understanding, enumerate some scenarios that environment understanding enables, and poses questions about how to deliver this technology successfully to mainstream end users.

Bio:

Dr. Michael J. Gourlay works as a Principal Lead Software Development Engineer at Microsoft on HoloLens in the Environmental Understanding Group, where he leads head tracking, surface reconstruction and calibration teams.

He previously worked at Electronic Arts (EA Sports) as the Software Architect for the Football Sports Business Unit, as a senior lead engineer on Madden NFL, on character physics and the procedural animation system used by EA, on Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), and as a lead programmer on NASCAR. He wrote Lynx, the visual effects system used in EA games worldwide and patented algorithms for interactive, high-bandwidth online applications. He also architected FranTk, the game engine behind Connected Career and Connected Franchise.

He also developed curricula for and taught at the University of Central Florida (UCF) Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA), an interdisciplinary graduate program that teaches programmers, producers and artists how to make video games and training simulations.

He is also a Subject Matter Expert for Studio B Productions, and writes articles for Intel on parallelized computational fluid dynamics simulations for video games.

Prior to joining EA, he performed scientific research using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the world's largest massively parallel supercomputers. His previous research also includes nonlinear dynamics in quantum mechanical systems, and atomic, molecular and optical physics, stealth, RADAR and massively parallel supercomputer design. He also developed pedagogic orbital mechanics software.

Michael received his degrees in physics and philosophy from Georgia Tech and the University of Colorado at Boulder.