A $6 million infusion of capital from Facebook, Google and Huawei has allowed the University of Washington to open a new virtual reality and augmented reality research hub. The UW Reality Hub is one of the first of its kind at a major university and is housed in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering.
“Through our partnership with Facebook, Google, and Huawei, the Allen School and UW will be at the forefront of the next great wave of AR and VR innovation — pursuing breakthrough research and educating the next generation of innovators in this exciting and rapidly expanding field,” Hank Levy, Allen School director and Wissner-Slivka Chair in Computer Science and Engineering, said in a statement.
The lab allows faculty and students to explore and develop a wide range of applications for the devices, from 3D computer vision and perception for object recognition. The lab complements a rapidly growing VR and AR ecosystem in Seattle, building on the region’s global reputation as an information and communication technology giant. More than 100 ICT juggernauts, including Facebook, Google and Huawei, have engineering offices in Washington, joining 14,000 other companies throughout the state engaged in the ICT sector.
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