Extended Reality @ NIST

The NIST Extended Reality (XR) Community of Interest (COI) represents a group of researchers across the NIST labs who are working in augmented (AR), mixed (MR), and virtual reality (VR).  Their work ranges from visualizing crystalline structures to simulating public safety situations, performing usability testing, and creating standards.  This list is a sampling of NIST’s work in extended reality (XR) and provides contact information for the associated researchers.

XR for Human-Robot Interaction

NIST Intelligent Systems Division leverages XR to develop and evaluate novel metrology for assessing HRI technologies.

XR for Smart Manufacturing

NIST Systems Integration Division studies the convergence of XR and manufacturing standards to facilitate quick prototyping of applications.

XR for Fire Research

NIST Fire Research Division develops hardware and software to enable visualization of severe fire environments.

 

Usability Research for XR

NIST Information Access Division partnered with NIST PSCR to develop methods for evaluating usability of XR for public safety.

 

XR for Public Safety

NIST PSCR Division strives for first responders to have tools designed around their specific context, tasks and requirements.

 

Web-based XR

NIST Applied and Computational Mathematics Division enables VR for immersive visualization in a Web browser.

Recent Highlights & News

• [15 SEPT 2021]  Sandy Ressler wrote a new article for the Khronos Group:  Will LiDAR Break the 3D Asset Creation Bottleneck?
• [14 SEPT 2021]  Sandy Ressler was featured in a roundup:  100 Original Voices in XR
• [SEPT 2021]  Unfortunately, Bill Bernstein has moved on from NIST to another position.  We will miss his enthusiasm for XR!  Shelly Bagchi is the interim chair of the XR COI.
• [08 APR 2021] Matt Hoehler's team posted a new data-augmented 360 degree video built using WebXR.  See the full story here!
• [27 JAN 2021] Scott Ledgerwood presented on the NIST XR COI through an XRA-sponsored webinar.  Register to view the talk here!
• [10 NOV 2020] NIST is now an official member of the Khronos Group!  If you work at NIST and would like access to the Khronos Group member portal, please contact the NIST XR COI for instructions. 
• [10 NOV 2020] Matt Hoehler received the 2020 Jacob Rabinow Award for the development of novel visualization techniques transforming fire data collection and communication of results in large-scale fire research.
• [26 AUG 2020] UIDP Webinar on the NIST XR COI posted.
• [10 AUG 2020] New NOFO from Public Safety Innovation Accelerator Program (PSIAP) released.
• [21 APR 2020] Shelly Bagchi pushed an update for AR Interfaces for Robotics (Uses NIST's Collaborative Robotics Programming Interface, Unity, & Vuforia).
• [20 APR 2020] Sandy Ressler and Matt Hoehler submitted project linking together data visualization and 360-degree fire video for the 2020 Auggie Awards.
• [16 APR 2020] Bill Bernstein's team recently got a paper accepted to ASME CIE VES 2020.  The work focuses on merging IndoorGML and MTConnect to promote quick XR prototype development. Preprint is available here. 
• [14 APR 2020] Bill Bernstein published a new blog on the AREA's website.
• [18 FEB 2020] Scott Ledgerwood's pushed an update for a Mobile AR demo for PSCR Conference. 
• [01 AUG 2019] Matt Hoehler posted “parallel fence fire” to library of 360-degree videos of fires.
• [15 JUL 2019] Prof. Rafael Radkowski, Bill Bernstein's collaborator, gave a seminar as part of the AREA Research Webinar series on Computer Vision for Augmented Reality in Manufacturing and Training
• [01 JUL 2019] Scott Ledgerwood's team pushed an update for Public Safety Virtual Environments for UI Integration.
• [27 APR 2019] Matt Hoehler posted “prescribed wildland fires” to library of 360-degree videos of fires.
• [20 DEC 2018] Matt Hoehler posted “burner shakedown” to library of 360-degree videos of fires.
• [26 SEP 2018] Matt Hoehler posted “museum collections” to library of 360-degree videos of fires.
• [20 DEC 2018] Scott Ledgerwood published a blog on Making Fighting Fires in Virtual Reality More like Real Reality
• [03 OCT 2018] Matt Hoehler posted a library of 360-degree videos of fires.
• [01 SEP 2018] Sandy Ressler showcased the exploration of math surfaces from NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions.
• [24 JUL 2018] Matt Hoehler posted “kitchen fire” to library of 360-degree videos of fires.
• [01 AUG 2016] Sandy Ressler showcased the exploration of a scanning tunneling microscope head in VR.

NIST XR COI Members

(categorized by org. unit; listed alphabetically)

• Engineering Laboratory: Brian Antonishek ♦ Shelly Bagchi ♦ Glenn Forney ♦ Wenqi Guo ♦ William Healy ♦ Matthew Hoehler ♦ Jeremy Marvel ♦ Teodor Vernica ♦ Megan Zimmerman
• Communications Technology Laboratory: Scott Ledgerwood 
• Information Technology Laboratory: Brian Stanton ♦ Yee-Yin Choong ♦ Kevin Mangold ♦ Sandy Ressler ♦ Steven Satterfield ♦ Judith Terrill
• Information Services Office: Amanda Malanowski
• NIST Center for Neutron Research: William Ratcliff