L2S Talk by Jack Naylor (Sydney University Robotic Imaging Lab): Through the Looking Glass – Neural Fields for Robotics 

7 June 2023, 11-12 h in H-C 7327

The talk is part of the ZESS lecture series and hosted by the DFG research unit “Learning to Sense” (L2S).

Robotic imaging is an emergent field which seeks to synthesize concepts across computational imaging and robotics to create new cameras and algorithms in aid of extending robotic capabilities. Unconventional camera technologies including plenoptic, neuromorphic and hyperspectral cameras enable robotic platforms to deal with unique scenarios and environments, however they provide information which requires additional interpretation and are not suited to all robotic tasks. This talk will provide an overview of recent work towards auto-interpretation of new cameras on-board robotic platforms using neural interpretation of scenes, and regularisation of neural radiance fields to improve scene representation for robotics around complex visual phenomena. 

Jack Naylor is a PhD candidate with the Australian Centre for Robotics at the University of Sydney where he also majored in Space Engineering and Physics. His research seeks to adapt neural representations of light, in the form of neural radiance fields (NeRFs), as a new robotic map representation to enable understanding of complex visual phenomena in unstructured environments. 

Jan Söhlke
Jan Söhlke

Dr. Jan Söhlke is the head of communication and staff photographer at ZESS, as well as the Scientific Coordinator for the DFG Research Unit 'Learning to Sense' (FOR 5336).

Following his doctoral studies at LMU Munich, he moved into science communication and the visual documentation of research environments. His work focuses on photographing complex scientific setups and high-tech infrastructure - translating engineering and academic projects into clear visual assets. In addition, he works as a freelance photographer for industrial and research-driven organizations. You can find his portfolio at https://jansoehlke.com/.

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