| The Last Day |
How can it be Thursday already? On this, the fifth and final day of the 2019 FiO + LS Conference, there are two slots of technical sessions offered before and after two Visionary Speakers.
Visionary Speaker Toshiki Tajima (pictured) presents on laser wakefields in plasma, nanostructures and blackhole vicinities; and Bernard Kress asks how come AR/VR/MR HMD optics still succeed at shrinking over time if there is no Moore's Law in Physics?
Laser Science APS/DLS presents a two-part Nobel Prize Symposium offering talks on research and applications made possible by discoveries recognized in 2018 by the Nobel Committee for Physics. And two theme programs offer concluding sessions. Virtual Reality and Augmented Vision offers content on immersive display systems and the photographic capture systems that produce content capable of driving them and an "Innovation Showcase". Quantum Technologies presents sessions on quantum computing and quantum communications and the future quantum Internet.
Finally, take advantage of the last coffee break at 10:00 to meet more attendees. |
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| Ronald Hanson, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands |
Dawn of the Quantum Internet — On the Brink of the First Multi-node Quantum Network
The challenges and unique opportunities in the development of a quantum internet in the Netherlands was the focus of the second plenary at FiO + LS.
Ronald Hanson, scientific director of QuTech, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, summarized the unique features of entanglement — the property of two particles to maintain a unique relationship regardless of their separation. This is arguably one of the most counterintuitive ideas in all of optics and physics. But it is this counterintuitive nature that makes entanglement potentially the most powerful element in all of quantum theory.
If this property could be fully exploited, it would lead to more secure and more powerful communication networks.
By developing a multi-node entanglement-based quantum network in the lab, Hanson believes he is helping to bring a quantum internet closer to actual deployment.
Quantum networks, he speculates, will likely harness the power of entanglement in exciting, real-life applications.
Program Note: the video recording of Dr. Hanson's talk will be available on the FiO website next week. |
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| Nitish Padmanaban, Stanford University, USA |
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Help for Getting Back in Focus
The technology of augmented vision and virtual reality is undeniably cool. But for some, the question “Yes, but what is it really good for?” always seems to be lurking in the background.
At a Wednesday morning session at FiO + LS, “Applications of AR/VR,” Nitish Padmanaban, a PhD candidate in the Computational Imaging Lab of Gordon Wetzstein at Stanford University, USA, offered one practical answer. He did so via a walk-through of the lab’s work creating “Autofocals” — computer-aided glasses that, the team believes, might someday help vision-impaired humans regain the ability to dynamically focus on objects near and far.
Padmanaban’s work focuses on presbyopia — the loss of the ability to accommodate, or refocus, when moving the eye from gazing on points at different distances, a syndrome tied to aging that affects some 20% of people worldwide. Current solutions, such as progressive bifocals, have a learning curve and can be difficult to use, requiring head tilts to refocus on objects at different distances.
The Stanford lab’s Autofocals unit attempts to get to a system that works as normal eyes work, refocusing dynamically as the viewer’s eyes dart from one part of the scene to another. It does so through a combination of optical elements and computational power, marrying elements for eye tracking and depth sensing with liquid lenses that can be dynamically refocused based on the sensor input
Padmanaban recounted how the team solved various problems to get to a system that, in user tests, convincingly outperformed progressive bifocals. He said that he and his lab partner will soon be launching a start up to move the prototype — currently a bulky headset — into something that can be commercialized.
Read extended coverage at OSA's Optics & Photonics News. > |
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"True Believers" Envision a VR/AR Future
In a session Tuesday afternoon that kicked off the FiO + LS track in virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), three leading figures in VR/AR research examined different dimensions of the technology that will foster market-leading displays.
Douglas Lanman, director of display systems research for Facebook Reality Labs (formerly Oculus VR) noted that “pretty much all of modern optics” is in the VR quest to create beautiful images — but that achieving the goal requires keen attention to the complex interactions between the human visual system and the hardware. Henry Fuchs of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA, envisioned applications such as a “virtual personal assistant” to aid in health-care monitoring. And David Luebke of Nvidia Corp. reviewed some of the challenges of packing a wide field of view, low latency and minimal power requirements in the thin, light devices that consumers demand.
For more on the session, see the story in OSA’s Optics & Photonics News. > |
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Safe Travels Home.
frontiersinoptics.org
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Technical Conference
15 – 19 September 2019
Science + Industry Showcase
17 – 18 September 2019
Marriott Wardman Park
2660 Woodley Road, NW
Washington, DC 20008
USA
Map & Directions |
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Registration
Atrium (Lower Level)
Thursday, 19 September
07:30 – 11:00 |
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Complimentary WiFi Access
SSID: Marriott Conference
Password: FIOLS2019 |
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For More Information
Visit the FiO + LS website for up-to-date meeting information, or contact us at custserv@osa.org.
You can also visit the onsite OSA Booth located near Registration (Atrium, Lower Level). |
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Sponsored by: |
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Managed by:
The Optical Society
2010 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, D.C., 20036
USA
osa.org |
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