Microsoft announce new HoloLens Computer Vision research team

In a blog post announcing their sponsorship of the 14th European Conference on Computer Vision, Microsoft has also confirmed that they have created a new HoloLens computer vision research team at Microsoft in Cambridge, UK.

Microsoft intends to use the group to amplify research into the engineering challenges which prevent the technology from realizing its full potential (we think of issues such as field of view for example) and also help accelerate the technology to market.

The team, which currently appears about 8 strong, is set to expand substantially over the coming months, with Microsoft looking to recruit staff who have a strong blend of research, engineering, and mathematics skills.

The team will be headed by Jamie Shotton, who’s previous work focused at the intersection of computer vision, AI, machine learning, and graphics, with particular emphasis on systems that allow people to interact naturally with computers.

Combining this with HoloLens technology will presumably mean that HoloLens will not only be able to recognize surfaces using its depth sensors, but also objects using its camera, allowing more natural and intelligent interactions with the objects the users are looking for.

At the European Conference on Computer Vision Microsoft researchers, scientists, and engineers will be participating in the discussion with dozens of talks and posters, a workshop co-organized by Zhengyou Zhang on Computer Vision for Audio-Visual Media, and a keynote by Changhu Wang at the first workshop on Visual Analysis of Sketches.

The event will be held in Amsterdam from October 8-16. Read more about Microsoft’s participation here.