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Vidya Setlur

Principal Research Scientist
IDEA Team
NRC Palo Alto

I am part of the IDEA team at the Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto. I graduated from Northwestern University in 2005 with a Ph.D. in computer graphics. I enjoy doing applied computer graphics research with an emphasis on practicality and usefulness to better facilitate tasks performed with a computational device. I like interacting with smart people to discuss and work on interesting research problems that encompass a variety of areas starting from art, literature, natural language, mathematics, UI concepts and computer graphics.

I also enjoy teaching and interacting with students. I am adjunct professor at CMU-West working on an exciting venture to start a new Ph.D program in mobility.

Here are my CV, research description and teaching statement.

 

 

Education

Doctor of Philosophy, June 2005. Advisor: Professor Bruce Gooch Dissertation Title: Optimizing Computer Imagery for Visual Communication

Master of Science Computer Science, June 2004. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, with honors, December 2000. Bangalore Institute of Technology, Bangalore, India.
 

Professional Activities

  • General chair for the 2006 Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia Conference.
  • Reviewer for Siggraph, Siggraph Asia, Eurographics, VIE, UIST, CHI, InfoVis, IEEE CG&A, ACM MM
  • Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
  • President of the ACM-W (ACM Women in Computing) organization at the Computer Science Department at Northwestern University (2003- 2004)

Research Interests

Computers are becoming faster, smaller and more interconnected, creating a shift in their primary function from computation to communication. This trend is exemplified by ubiquitous devices such as cellular phones with cameras, personal digital assistants with video, information displays in automobiles, and computer screens in elevators and refrigerators. As communication devices and viewing situations become more plentiful, we need imagery that facilitates visual communication across a wide range of display devices. In addition, producing effective and expressive visual content currently requires considerable artistic skill and can consume days. The goal of my research is to develop new techniques and user interfaces that enhance visual communication, while making it fast and easy to generate compelling content. My research combines concepts and methods from visual art, perceptual psychology, information processing, and cognitive science to facilitate users in creating, understanding and interpreting computer imagery. I like to collectively group these concepts as functional aesthetics.

At Nokia, my work involves researching novel rendering algorithms particularly targeted for mobile based interactive visualizations. My research interests include semantic graphics , i.e. the usage of machine learning to better improve graphics design, such as for maps, sensor based technologies, and smart environments that intelligently react and respond to users.

I was also responsible in helping in the release of our new mobile computer vision library: NokiaCV.

Other Information

 

Teaching

  • Co-advised Stanford Design School's ME 310 class students. Check out the wiki.
  • Taught a course on Java based mobile graphics course this Spring of 2007 at SJSU
  • Currently co-teaching a construction course at CMU-West, focussing on J2ME aspects of the curriculum.
  • Co-taught a tutorial at Mobisys 2008 titled, "Thick Mobile Client Programming Technologies: Python for S60 and J2ME." June 17, 2008.

 

Internship

Spring 2004, worked on a video processing project at MitsubishiElectric Research Labs (MERL), Cambridge, MA with Dr. Ramesh Raskar. Involved in a project to interactively edit video as a 3D volume in the space-time domain. This allows users to perform video fast-forwarding by indicating volumetric areas in 3D space that can be skipped or deleted.

 

Fellowships and Awards

Secured first prize for best technology business talk at the 2006 Seimens Technology To Business (TTB) Post-doctoral Workshop

2002 Teaching Assistant Fellow at the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

 

Press Release

An article on my semanticons work was featured in Technology Research News (TRN).

Publications

Refereed Journal and Conference Publications

 

Myngle: Unifying and Filtering Web Content for Unplanned Access Between Multiple Personal Devices. Sohn, T., Li, F., Battestini, A., Setlur, V., Mori, K., Horii, H. Ubicomp 2011: IACM International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing.
 

Planning, Apps, and the High-end Smartphone: Exploring the landscape of modern cross-device reaccess. Bales, E., Sohn, T., Setlur, V. Pervasive 2011: International Conference on Pervasive Computing. [paper]
 

Wish I Hadn’t Clicked That: Context Based Icons for Mobile Web Navigation and Directed Search Tasks. Setlur, V., Rossoff, S., Gooch, B. Intelligent User Interfaces (IUI) 2011. [paper][video]

 
 

Supporting Unplanned Activities Through Cross-Device Interaction. Sohn, T., Battestini, A., Horii, H., Bales, E., Setlur, V., Mori, K. Automotive UI 2010: International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications [paper]

 
 

Addressing Mobile Information Overload in the Universal Inbox through Lenses. Sohn, T., Setlur, V., Mori, K., Kaye, J., Horii, H., Battestini, A. Ballagas, R., Paretti, C., Spasojevic, M. Mobile Human Computer Interaction (MobileHCI) 2010.[paper]

 
 

A Large Scale Study of Text Messaging Use. Battestini, A., Setlur, V., Sohn, T.Mobile Human Computer Interaction (MobileHCI) 2010.[paper]

 
 

Towards Designing Better Map Interfaces for the Mobile: Experiences from Example. Setlur, V., Kao, C., Mikelsons, P. The 1st International Conference on Computing for Geospatial Research and Application. (COM.Geo) 2010.[paper]

 
 

Let’s Play Chinese Characters – Mobile Learning Approaches via Culturally Inspired Group Games. Tian, F., Lv, F., Wang, J., Wang, H., Luo, W., Kam, M., Setlur, V., Dai, G., Canny, J. CHI 2010.[paper]

 
 

Using Gestures on Mobile Phones to Create SMS Comics. Setlur, V., Battestini, A., Sohn, T., Horii, H.  International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI), 2010. [paper]  [video]

 
 

Visual Summaries of Popular Landmarks from Community Photo Collections. Chen, W., Battestini, A., Gelfand, N., Setlur, V.  ACM Multimedia 2009. [paper] [video]

 
 

Using Comics as a Visual Metaphor for Enriching SMS Messages with Contextual and Social Media. Setlur, V., Battestini, A. MobileHCI 2009, Workshop on Sharing Experiences with Social Mobile Media. [paper] [video]

 
 

Travel Scrapbooks: Creating Rich Visual Travel Narratives. Setlur, V., Battestini, A., Ding, Xianghua.  International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME) 2009. [paper]

 
 

Tilt Menu: Using the 3D Orientation Information of Pen Devices to Extend the Selection Capability of Pen-based User Interfaces. CHI 2008. [paper]
 

Retargeting Images for Preserving Information Saliency. Setlur, V., Neinhaus, M., Lechner, T., Gooch, B. IEEE CG&A 2007. [paper]

 
 

The Tilt Cursor: Enhancing Stimulus-Response Compatibility by Providing 3D Orientation Cue of Pen. Tian, F., Ao, X., Wang, H., Setlur, V., Dai, G.  CHI 2007. [paper]

 
 

Camera-Based Virtual Environment Interaction on Mobile Devices. Capin, T., Haro, A., Setlur, V., and Wilkinson, S. 21st International Symposium on Computer and Information Sciences (ISCIS), 2006.[paper]

 
 

Optimizing Computer Imagery for More Effective Communication. Setlur, V. ACM Grace Hopper Conference for Women in Computing, 2006. [paper]

 
 
rich media

MORE: Mobile Open Rich-media Environment. Setlur, V., Capin, T., Chitturi, S., Vedantham, R., and Ingrassia, M. IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME), 2006.

 

[paper]   [talk]
 
stained glass

Automatic Stained Glass Rendering. Setlur, V., Wilkinson, S. Computer Graphics International (CGI) 2006.

[paper]   [talk]   [video]
 

Automatic Image Retargeting. Setlur, V., Takagi, S., Raskar, Ramesh., Gleicher, M., and Gooch, B. In the Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM) 2005, ACM Press 2005.

[paper]   [talk]
 

Mobile Camera-based Adaptive Viewing. Haro, A., Mori, K., Setlur, V., and Capin, T. In the Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM) 2005, ACM Press 2005.

[video]   [talk]
 
semanticons

Semanticons: Semantic-Based File Icons. Setlur, V., Albrecht-Buehler, C., Gooch, A., Rossoff, S., Gooch, B. In Eurographics 2005.[paper]

 
 

Is That a Smile? Gaze Dependent Facial Expressions. Setlur, V., and Gooch, B. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Non-photorealistic Animation and Rendering 2004, pp. 79 - 86, ACM Press, 2004.[paper]

 
 

Towards a Non-Linear Narrative Construction. Setlur, V., Shamma, D., and Hammond, K. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces 2003, pp. 82-86, ACM Press, 2003.

 

 

Technical Reports, Workshops, Demos and Conference Presentations

  • Setlur, V., Battestini, A., Nokia Mashups. Demo/poster at HotMobile 2009.
  • Setlur, V., Rossoff, S., Gooch, B. SemantiLynx: Using Context Based Icons for Web Navigation and Directed Search Tasks, UIST 2008.
  • Gao, J., Spasojevic, M., Jacob, M., Setlur, V., Reponen, E., Pulkkinen, M., Schloter, P., Pulli, K. Intelligent Visual Matching for Providing Context-Aware Information to Mobile Users. Supplemental proceedings of the Ubicomp 2007.
  • Setlur, V., Albrecht-Buehler, C., Gooch, A., Rossoff, S., Gooch, B. Semanticons: Semantic-Based File Icons. Northwestern University Technical Report. NWU-CS-04-46, 2004.
  • Setlur, V., Takagi, S., Raskar, R., Gleicher, M., and Gooch, B. Automatic Image Retargeting.Conference Abstracts and Applications of ACM SIGGRAPH 2004.
  • Setlur, V., Takagi, S., Gleicher, M., Raskar, R., and Gooch, B. Automatic Image Retargeting.Northwestern University Technical Report. NWU-CS-04-41, 2004.

Presentations

  • Semantic Graphics for More Effective Visual Communication,keynote at Graphics Interface 2009.
  • Diversity in your Workplace, March 2009, CRA-W Graduate Cohort Workshop.
  • Non-Academic Career Path Post Ph.D., March 2009, CRA-W Graduate Cohort Workshop.
  • Semantilinks: Context Aware Hyperlinks for More effective Browsing, April 2006, Nokia Exchange for Research and Development (NERD) 2006, Helsinki, Finland.
  • Vector-Based Animation Retargeting, November 6 2004, the Mid-Graph Conference, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
  • Time Management and Balance: A Graduate School Gathering, October 8 2004,Grace Hopper Conference, Chicago, IL.
  • Vector-Based Animation Retargeting, November 6 2004, the Mid-Graph Conference, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
  • Is that a Smile? Gaze Dependent Facial Expressions, November 10 2003, the Mid-Graph Conference, Washington University, St. Louis, MO.
  • A Life Without Friction: Tales from the InfoLab, January 2003, the International Conference of Intelligent User Interfaces, Miami, FL.