Visual Expert to Lead USC Institute’s Graphics Lab

Computer scientist Hao Li aims to modernize the way researchers capture, process and analyze data

By Amy Blumenthal 

Hao Li, an assistant professor of computer science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and holder of an Early Career Chair, will take the helm at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies Graphics Laboratory.
The lab developed the light stage that records 3-D appearances of human faces, bodies and objects using computer-controlled illuminations. It has collaborated with entertainment companies such as Sony Pictures, Digital Domain and Weta Digital on films such as Avatar, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Hobbit, The Avengers and Gravity, as well as new glasses-free 3-D display technologies in collaboration with USC’s Shoah Foundation—The Institute for Visual History and Education to preserve the testimony of Holocaust survivors.
Before joining USC in 2013, Li was a research lead at Industrial Light & Magic/Lucasfilm, where he developed the next generation of real-time facial performance capture technologies for virtual production and visual effects. He also led the development of the high-end facial animation pipeline at Weta Digital, which was used to “reenact” the late actor Paul Walker in Furious 7.
Named one of the 35 innovators under 35 by MIT Technology Review in 2013, Li plans to blend the expertise of ICT’s Graphics Lab with his existing research in the Department of Computer Science at USC Viterbi, which focuses on more deployable tech-capture solutions such as building a 3-D avatar from a single image.
Digital Doings
Li’s goals include the expansion of ICT’s leading role in human digitization and exploring new augmented reality/virtual reality platforms.
While continuing his teaching duties at USC Viterbi, Li hopes to build databases of 3-D human shapes with the highest possible fidelity.