Abstract
Ravish is theDirector for Audio Research at Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) Research responsible for developing novel audio techniques to push the state-of-the-art for audio in VR and AR. He completed his PhD in Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the field of acoustics and spatial audio. In his doctoral work, he worked on novel physically based simulation techniques for simulating complex acoustic phenomena arising out of propagation of sound waves in large environments. Hisresearch interests span the fields of audio, acoustics, signal processing, and virtual and augmented reality. Dr. Mehra's work in acoustics and spatial audio has generated considerable interest in the audio community, and his sound propagation and spatialsound system has been integrated into virtual reality systems (Oculus HMD), with demonstrated benefits.
Biography
At Facebook Reality Labs Research, we’re building the future of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). FRL Research has brought together a highly interdisciplinary audio team made up of research scientists, engineers, designers, and more, all striving to improve human communication through radical audio innovation. The mission of the team is twofold: tocreate virtual sounds that are perceptually indistinguishable from realityand toredefine human hearing. In this talk, I present the two new capabilities the team is developing to achieve this mission: first,audio presence—the feeling that the source of a virtual sound is physically present in the same space as the listener, with such high fidelity that it’s indistinguishable from a real-world source; and second,perceptual superpowers—technological advancements that let us hear better in noisy environments by turning up the volume on the person sitting across from us while turning down the volume on unwanted background noises.