2023-06338 - Unity Engineer - Collaboration Platform in Extended Reality
Contract type : Fixed-term contract
Level of qualifications required : Graduate degree or equivalent
Fonction : Temporary scientific engineer
Level of experience : From 3 to 5 years
About the research centre or Inria departmentThe Inria Rennes - Bretagne Atlantique Centre is one of Inria's eight centres and has more than thirty research teams. The Inria Center is a major and recognized player in the field of digital sciences. It is at the heart of a rich R&D and innovation ecosystem: highly innovative PMEs, large industrial groups, competitiveness clusters, research and higher education players, laboratories of excellence, technological research institute, etc.
ContextThis project is framed within the EquipEx+ CONTINUUM, that aims a enabling a paradigm shift in the way we perceive, interact and collaborate with complex digital data and digital worlds by placing humans at the centre of the data processing flows. The project will provide scientists, engineers and industrial users with a network of high-performance visualization and immersion platforms for observing, manipulating, understanding and sharing digital data, multi-scale simulations and virtual or augmented experiences. All platforms will allow remote collaboration and will be equipped with mobile equipment that can be loaned to users to facilitate access to these technologies.
AssignmentIn this context, this project focuses on how a user with AR capabilities can ask for remote assistance from one or multiple remote users (VR collaborators). To ensure optimal collaboration, first, remote users need a precise understanding of the workspace of the AR user (workspace awareness). The awareness of the workspace enables the remote collaborators to understand and assess the environment in which the AR user is located. Second, users should be able to be aware of the actions of the other users (user awareness) and should be able to communicate with traditional interaction modalities, such as voice, gaze and gestures. User awareness is required to ensure efficient communication and interaction among users, as users should be aware of the actions of others. Finally, workspace and user awareness must be synchronized, as interactions are linked with elements of the physical workspace. However, due to the difficulty to ensure free exploration for remote collaborators, workspace awareness still remains an open problem, and it is typically supported either by virtual replicas/reconstructions or video feeds 1. However, with the appearance of radiance field rendering methods such as Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) 2 or more efficient point-based solutions 3, real-time and high-fidelity reconstruction of physical workspaces are becoming possible.
1 Fages, A., Fleury, C., and Tsandilas, T., Understanding Multi-View Collaboration between Augmented Reality and Remote Desktop Users. ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. CSCW2, 2022, 549, 1-27.
2 Mildenhall, B., Srinivasan, P. P., Tancik, M., Barron, J. T., Ramamoorthi, R., Ng, R, Nerf: Representing scenes as neural radiance fields for view synthesis. Communications of the ACM, 2021, 65(1), 99-106.
3 Kerbl, B., Kopanas. G, Leimkühler, T., & Drettakis, G., 3D Gaussians for Real-Time Rendering of Radiance Fields, conditionally accepted to ACM Trans. On Graphics (to be presented at ACM SIGGRAPH 2023).
Main activitiesThe engineer will be tasked with the design and development of the collaboration platform for using and conducting research on remote assistance (Unity, C#). The main tasks will be:
Monthly gross salary from 2655 euros according to diploma and experience
General InformationTheme/Domain : Interaction and visualization Software Experimental platforms (BAP E)
Town/city : Rennes
We are looking for excellent candidates, preferably with a solid background in computer graphics and good coding skills, who can work independently and who are also keen to collaborate with other researchers on a large-scale project.
About InriaInria is the French national research institute dedicated to digital science and technology. It employs 2,600 people. Its 200 agile project teams, generally run jointly with academic partners, include more than 3,500 scientists and engineers working to meet the challenges of digital technology, often at the interface with other disciplines. The Institute also employs numerous talents in over forty different professions. 900 research support staff contribute to the preparation and development of scientific and entrepreneurial projects that have a worldwide impact.
Instruction to applyPlease submit online : your resume, cover letter and letters of recommendation eventually
For more information, please contact [email protected]
Defence Security : This position is likely to be situated in a restricted area (ZRR), as defined in Decree No. 2011-1425 relating to the protection of national scientific and technical potential (PPST).Authorisation to enter an area is granted by the director of the unit, following a favourable Ministerial decision, as defined in the decree of 3 July 2012 relating to the PPST. An unfavourable Ministerial decision in respect of a position situated in a ZRR would result in the cancellation of the appointment.
Recruitment Policy : As part of its diversity policy, all Inria positions are accessible to people with disabilities.
Warning : you must enter your e-mail address in order to save your application to Inria. Applications must be submitted online on the Inria website. Processing of applications sent from other channels is not guaranteed.