Our team is currently working with our client, Bhargav Bompalli, a computer vision engineer from UNC Blue Sky Innovations lab. The mission of UNC Blue Sky Innovations is to improve storytelling and education through technological innovations. The team aims to use technology to enhance human beings’ lives. Their projects include Artificial Intelligence, augmented virtual reality, and robots. So far, the research lab implemented its AR technologies in real life, such as engaging hospital patients in physical activities and immersive speed climbing for athletes.
Bhargav Bompalli is currently working on volumetric capture at Blue Sky Innovations. The volumetric capture project uses deep learning models to process and manipulate videos of humans captured by cameras to create 3D models of humans. Three different machine learning models are used for this process, but our client must manually run each step one at a time, as well as manipulate the data so that the machine learning models produce the correct output. This provides an opening for human error and slows down the creation of the 3D model. The strict inputs required for these models and usage of the command line to run them makes the process difficult for those without programming experience. Our client has tasked us with creating software to automate this process that can be interacted with through a simple user interface.
This technology merged the real-world environment and generated 3D models together, and this would be very likely how people interact with each other in the future. Volumetric capture could be applied in different fields, such as the medical, education, and entertainment industry. For instance, the biology professor could present a 3D body model in the class to bring students a better view of the human skeleton and organs. Even more, Sci-Fi directors could implement this technology into their film production. In the UNC community, we could use this technology in-class activities to give students a more interactive and immersive educational environment. Our target user group is large, and it could influence more people and give more surprising outcomes in the future.
In this project, we can apply what we learned from school to real-world problems. We also practiced important communication skills as a group. We also learned that it is essential to consider the accessibility of technology for all users, including those without programming experience. So, We practiced how to make specific project documentation for users and future developers. Since our project is built based on several open-sourced projects, we also learned how to find and then use open-sourced packages and experienced the benefits of the open-source community and how we can contribute to it by sharing our code and knowledge with others. Furthermore, this project allows us to contribute to society by implementing technology that can enhance education, medical care, and entertainment. We may also make this project free to use, study, modify, and distribute your project for any purpose if possible to give back to the open-source community to make it stronger.