I work as an Early Stage Researcher at Tampere University (TAU), Finland, and my research topic is “Real-time view interpolation with distributed heterogeneous computing“.
You can read my introduction here.
My research topic
My research topic is at the intersection between parallel computing, photorealistic rendering and perception.
Light field displays mitigate the vergence-accomodation conflict that occurs with traditional displays. However, generating multiple photorealistic images in real-time (50-90Hz) for those displays becomes computationally expensive as the number of views in a light field increases.
By using multiple GPUs, we can divide the workload and thus reduce the computation time. Moreover, techniques such as pixel reuse for view synthesis are useful to reduce the computational complexity: by reusing redundant pixel from one view to another, we do not need to recompute the whole light path. However, communication between GPUs, data locality and data dependencies must be taken into account to minimize as much as possible the latency.
When mixing all of these together, it becomes possible to design a rendering architecture in order to control the flow of the workload (tasks to execute) and the rendering latency to optimize real-time rendering for light field displays.
Slam video
In the context of the PLENOPTIMA project we were asked to produce a short video summarizing our own research.
Research visit in Sweden
Sundsvall (Sweden)
In the scope of the Plenoptima project, I am enrolled in a Double Doctoral program. I conduct my studies both at Tampere University (Finland) and Mid-Sweden University (Sweden).
From January 2023 to June 2023 I carried out my research secondment at Mid-Sweden University (MIUN) in the campus of Sundsvall. There, my research focused on VR, workload balancing modeling and NP-hard problems for assignments.
After a few weeks in Sundsvall, I started to propose and organize activities for PhD students with the help of couple other PhD students. At that time, there was no proper structure for PhD student activities. Now a student guild for PhD students exists.
Industrial secondment at CREAL (Switzerland)
I joined one of the industrial partners of the Plenoptima project, namely: CREAL, for a two-months internship from October 2024 to November 2024. CREAL is a startup based in Lausanne, Switzerland. This startup works on VR/AR near-eye displays, using light field technology.
Conferences
2024
- ACM Virtual Reality and Software Technologies 2024 – Trier, Germany: Presenter
- Plenoptima European Light Field Imaging Conference 2024 – Sozopol, Bulgaria: Presenter
- MIUN Computer Engineering Internal Conference 2024 – Online: Presenter
- I&ST Electronic Imaging 2024 – Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality – San Francisco, USA: Presenter
- I&ST Electronic Imaging 2024 – Highlight Session – San Francisco, USA: Presenter
2023
- MIUN Computer Engineering Internal Conference 2023 – Sundsvall, Sweden: Presenter
2022
- MIUN Computer Engineering Internal Conference 2022 – Online: Presenter
- CGS Computer Graphics International 2022 – Online: Presenter
Seminars
- MIUN Erwan Leria’s Half-time Seminar 2023: Presenter
- Plenoptima Webinar 2023: Presenter and Opponent
- Plenoptima Webinar 2022: Presenter and Opponent
- Plenoptima Webinar 2021: Presenter and Opponent
Training Schools and Workshops
2024
- European Light Field Imaging Workshop – June 2024 – Sozopol, Bulgaria: Attendee
2023
- Plenoptima Workshop and Training School – Autumn 2023 – TU Berlin, Germany: Attendee
- Plenoptima Workshops and Training Schools – Spring2023 – INRIA Rennes, France: Attendee
2022
- Plenoptima Workshop and Training School – Autumn 2022 – MIUN Sundsvall, Sweden: Attendee
- Plenoptima Workshop and Training School – Spring 2022 – Tampere University, Finland: Attendee
Publications (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5011-299X)
2024
- Interactive Multi-GPU Light Field Path Tracing Using Multi-Source Spatial Reprojection – Erwan Leria, Markku Mäkitalo and Pekka Jääskeläinen, Mårten Sjöström, Tingting Zhang – October 2024
- Real-time Stereoscopic Image-parallel Path Tracing – Erwan Leria, Markku Mäkitalo and Pekka Jääskeläinen – January 2024
2023
- Real-time Light Field Path Tracing – Markku Mäkitalo, Erwan Leria, Julius Ikkala, Pekka Jääskeläinen – January 2023
2022
- Tauray: A Scalable Real-Time Open-Source Path Tracer for Stereo and Light Field Displays – Julius Ikkala, Markku Mäkitalo, Tuomas Lauttia, Erwan Leria, Pekka Jääskeläinen – August 2022
Hobbies
I used to practice rugby back in France for many years. Now in Finland I am involved in Tampere Rugby Club.
During the 2021-2022 season, we got promoted to the first Finnish Championship division (see picture on the right) by winning against Jyväskylä Rugby Club.
Our home games can be watched live on the streaming platform of the local daily journal: Aamulehti. I participated both in XVs and 7s rugby games.
During my secondment in Sweden, I practiced cross country skiing with some colleagues around the Sidsjö lake in Sundsvall.
In early 2024, I participated in the Winter Swimming Competition of Tampere at the Kaupinojan sauna, which has access to the Näsijärvi lake. The competition consists of swimming 24 meters in a frozen lake.
using fractal perlin noise and ray-marching
You can find as well my shadertoy webpage here: https://www.shadertoy.com/user/Leria/
I am also interested into chess. Late October 2024, I participated in team chess games, in the Coupe du Léman 2024. I competed under the banner of La Dame Blanche, the student chess club of the EPFL.