One of the most important external sources of research, knowledge, and technology in innovation are universities; industry-academia collaborations are force multipliers for high impact research. Unity partnered with the Future Reality Lab at New York University (NYU) to research and develop the most efficient ways for non-technical content creators and consumers to construct 3D objects. This project is spearheaded by a team of senior researchers at Unity Labs and Professor Kenneth Perlin, founding director of the Media Research Lab at NYU, director of the Future Reality Lab at NYU, and the Director of the Games for Learning Institute. 

The NYU Future Reality Lab explores how people will use future mixed reality technologies to better communicate and interact with each other when they are in the same physical space. The lab features 15 experts, including an entrepreneur in residence. 

This collaborative industry-academia undertaking will aim to lower the barrier of entry for non-technical users to be able to rapidly ingest, digitize and prototype 3D assets so they can realize RT3D capabilities in a way they currently cannot. 

In the first stage of this project, the Unity-NYU team will focus on 3D asset retrieval and producing a low detail 3D object example. The team will then apply those learnings to work on multiple retrieval inputs in the second stage of the research. The ultimate goal of the project is to discover a clear path toward designing an interactive system to assist users in sketching by providing them with responsive data-driven autocomplete of high quality 3D models based on the sketch. Think, solving jigsaw puzzles with machine learning algorithms that can auto detect the correct puzzle piece. 

We are excited to embark on this research journey with NYU and our hope is to create a long lasting relationship that will result in groundbreaking discoveries in such domains as machine learning, geometrical computation, or mixed reality technologies. 

** Academia Research Collaboration Program is part of the Technology Org and supports multiple business units across the company. Our mission is to identify critical areas of innovation and accelerate Unity’s research and development initiatives by collaborating with the global research community through programs, events, learning opportunities, and joint research endeavors.

Source: Unity Technologies Blog