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A Day in the Life of a Researcher

Posted: 02-06-2021

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    Anuja Sanjay Pathak, Junior Software Research Engineer, describes what it is like working as part of Walton’s AR/VR team.

    How long have you been working in Walton Institute
    6 months

    Anuja Sanjay Pathak,
    Junior Software Research Engineer

    Outline your day to day
    I have a daily stand up meeting with the Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) team every morning which helps plan out the day.

    I have just begun my research, so I put together a timeline for myself to work towards. I plan to complete the literature review in 8 weeks and I dedicate at least 30-40 minutes to the literature review everyday, alongside the projects that I am working on in parallel.

    How and why you got into your research field
    I have always been a curious person and that is what drove me to research. I started developing my interest in audio in AR and VR during my master’s degree. I came across various interesting concepts and projects which drove my interest in this field.

    All of the AR/VR experiences currently in the market, place more emphasis on the visuals than the audio. I believe if we concentrate more on the audio, we could build AR and VR experiences like never before, which would be more immersive and interactive in nature.

    Briefly outline the research projects you’re currently working on
    I have recently started working on the impact of audio/spatial sounds on an immersive experience (AR/VR). I am looking at how audio can be used to make the immersive experience more interactive.

    What areas do you see yourself working on in the future
    I would like to work towards integrating audio in AR and VR experiences and I am also interested in working in the field of E-textiles.

    What have you learned/discovered during a particular project
    Working with Walton Institute as part of the AR/VR team has been a huge learning experience. I have worked on a number of projects, including a major EU project. I have come across so many well established people in their respective field who have taught me a lot about work ethic and discipline. Working on the major EU project has been technically challenging also. It gave me an opportunity to work outside my comfort zone (i. e unity/unreal or game development) and learn something new, that was completely different to what I studied in university.

    The big and little wins you have had in this role
    My big win would be that I was able to successfully deliver the ionic/angular framework based AR.js/A-frame Augmented web application which was completely out of my domain, in the short time frame of just 12 weeks.

    Outline why your research is necessary for the end user: i.e.what are the benefits
    The main benefit of having audio in AR and VR experiences is that it makes the overall experience more immersive and interactive.

    How will it improve the current state
    In the current state of AR/VR experiences the audio is not very relevant or widely used. We can use positional audio to give a sense of complete immersion.

    When will it be implemented
    I am in the initial stages of my research.

    What are the real-world implications
    There are many real world implications for this research. We could use audio to help the visually disabled have a similar experience. We could also use audio to give special effects to the existing AR/VR experiences and make them more immersive and interactive.