Steven K. Feiner

Feiner and his team examine the ways in which people accomplish tasks using current technology to determine how to create systems and user interfaces that can improve their performance. Whether working with 2D phones and tablets or 3D see-through head-worn displays, they design and implement interaction techniques that allow users to manipulate information more effectively and visualization techniques to present that information in ways that are more understandable. They perform user studies to evaluate their work by comparing how participants use their techniques and existing ones, quantifying improvements in metrics such as time, error rate, and subjective response. Feiner’s lab has developed view management systems that automatically lay out virtual objects, such as labels, in VR and AR user interfaces. These systems rely on efficient algorithms that can dynamically reposition and resize virtual objects to avoid unwanted visual relationships, such as occlusions, as the user’s viewpoint moves and the world changes. Their research on collaborative task assistance has created and tested new ways in which a remote expert can demonstrate to a distant technician through AR how to perform 3D manual tasks. Feiner’s lab has shown how to combat VR sickness, which some users experience when wearing VR head-worn displays, by subtly modifying the user’s field of view in ways that are effective yet imperceptible for many people. In addition to working with individual displays by themselves, Feiner has investigated what he calls hybrid user interfaces, which combine different kinds of displays and interaction devices to benefit from their complementary strengths. For example, one hybrid user interface created by his lab supports urban visualization. It uses a large, publicly visible, horizontal multi-touch display to present and interact with a map showing building footprints; personal head-tracked head-worn AR displays that overlay 3D building models that extend from their footprints; and personal tracked handheld phones that present detailed data about selected buildings. All these displays are aligned in a common 3D coordinate system and share maps and building models, together with georeferenced data obtained from online sources.

Feiner received an AB in music in 1973 and a PhD in computer science in 1987, both from Brown University. He was elected to the ACM CHI Academy in 2011, received the ACM UIST Lasting Impact Award in 2010 and the IEEE VGTC Virtual Reality Career Award in 2014.