I am part of the User Interfaces Group 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.
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.
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Tilt Menu: Using the 3D Orientation Information of Pen Devices to Extend the Selection Capability of Pen-based User Interfaces, CHI 2008. [pdf] |
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Setlur, V., Neinhaus, M., Lechner, T., Gooch, B. Retargeting Images for Preserving Information Saliency, IEEE CG&A 2007. [pdf] |
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Tian, F., Ao, X., Wang, H., Setlur, V., Dai, G. The Tilt Cursor: Enhancing Stimulus-Response Compatibility by Providing 3D Orientation Cue of Pen, CHI 2007. [pdf] |
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Capin, T., Haro, A., Setlur, V., and Wilkinson, S., Camera-Based Virtual Environment Interaction on Mobile Devices, 21st International Symposium on Computer and Information Sciences (ISCIS), 2006.[pdf] |
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Setlur, V., Optimizing Computer Imagery for More Effective Communication.ACM Grace Hopper Conference for Women in Computing, 2006. [pdf] |
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Setlur, V., Capin, T., Chitturi, S., Vedantham, R., and Ingrassia, M., MORE: Mobile Open Rich-media Environment, IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME), 2006. |
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Setlur, V., Wilkinson, S. Automatic Stained Glass Rendering. Computer Graphics International (CGI) 2006. |
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Setlur, V., Takagi, S., Raskar, Ramesh., Gleicher, M., and Gooch, B. Automatic Image Retargeting. In the Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM) 2005, ACM Press 2005. |
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Setlur, V., Chen, X., Xu, Y., and Gooch, B. Vector-Based Animation Retargeting. In the Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM) 2005, ACM Press 2005. |
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Haro, A., Mori, K., Setlur, V., and Capin, T. Mobile Camera-based Adaptive Viewing. In the Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM) 2005, ACM Press 2005. |
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Setlur, V., Albrecht-Buehler, C., Gooch, A., Rossoff, S., Gooch, B. Semanticons: Semantic-Based File Icons. In Eurographics 2005.[pdf] |
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Setlur, V., and Gooch, B. Is That a Smile? Gaze Dependent Facial Expressions. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Symposium on Non-photorealistic Animation and Rendering 2004, pp. 79 - 86, ACM Press, 2004.[pdf] |
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Setlur, V., Shamma, D., and Hammond, K. Towards a Non-Linear Narrative Construction. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces 2003, pp. 82-86, ACM Press, 2003. |
Spring 2004, worked on a video processing project at Mitsubishi Electric 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.
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.
An article on my semanticons work was featured in Technology Research News (TRN).
