Kaan Akşit

Associate Professor of Computational Light at University College London,

Optica Senior Member, Optica Display Technology Executive Committee, UCL Departmental Laser Safety Officer

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kaanaksit@kaanaksit.com

Kaan Akşit is an associate professor of computational light in the Computer Science department at University College London in the United Kingdom, where Kaan also leads the Computational Light Laboratory. Kaan received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Koç University, Türkiye*, in 2014. His M.Sc. degree is in electrical power engineering from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, in 2010. Kaan obtained his B.S. in electrical engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Türkiye, in 2007. Kaan researches the intersection of light and computation, including computational approaches in imaging, graphics, fabrication, and displays. Kaan’s research works are widely known among the optics and graphics community for his contributions to display technologies dedicated to 3D, virtual reality, and augmented reality. He worked as a research intern in Philips Research, the Netherlands, and Disney Research, Switzerland, in 2009 and 2013, respectively. In addition, he was a Senior Research Scientist at NVIDIA, the USA, between 2014 and 2020. Over the years, Kaan’s research works has been recognized with numerous awards from various highly respected venues and institutions including ACM SIGGRAPH, IEEE VR and ISMAR and Optica.

Prospective Students: Students interested in conducting research work for their master thesis in the domains of computational displays, computational imaging, physically informed deep learning models and generative models in physical sciences, can reach out via email for more details. Students are encouraged to reach out via email for open Ph.D. studentships and research intern positions with their resume and research statements.

Keywords: Computational Light, Computational Displays, Perceptual Graphics, Optical Computing

Websites: Personal website, Computational Light Laboratory, Odak Toolkit

Public engagements: High-Beams Seminars, Research Hub

For more details about Kaan’s academic profile such as conflicts, list of talks or academic services, please visit biography section of this website.

news

Feb 4, 2024 📰 Our paper, All-optical image denoising using a diffractive visual processor, is published at Light: Science & Applications. This work is a collaboration between Çağatay Işıl, Tianyi Gan, Fazil Onuralp, Koray Mentesoglu, Jagrit Digani, Huseyin Karaca, Hanlong Chen, Jingxi Li, Deniz Mengu, Mona Jarrahi, Kaan Akşit, and Ozcan Aydogan.
Jan 28, 2024 📰 Our paper, AutoColor: Learned Light Power Control for Multi-Color Holograms, is presented at SPIE AR|VR|MR 2024. This work is a collaboration between Yicheng Zhan, Koray Kavaklı, Hakan Urey, Qi Sun, and Kaan Akşit.
Dec 13, 2023 📰 Our paper, Multi-color Holograms Improve Brightness in Holographic Displays, is presented at SIGGRAPH Asia 2023. This work is a collaboration between Koray Kavaklı, Liang Shi, Hakan Urey, Wojciech Matusik, and Kaan Akşit.
Oct 13, 2023 🗣️ Kaan helped organizing Optical Waveguides: A key to Socially Acceptable Augmented Reality Glasses? as an Optica Incubator. Kaan also gave an invited talk titled Role of Differentiable Models in Computational Display Research at the same incubator event.
Oct 11, 2023 🗣️ Kaan attended and presented at Meta’s Academic forum 2023 upon Meta Reality Labs invitation. Kaan’s talk is titled Unlocking Next-Generation Display Technologies with Holography.

Projects

  1. All-optical image denoising using a diffractive visual processor
    Light: Science & Applications Feb 2024
  2. AutoColor: Learned Light Power Control for Multi-Color Holograms
    Zhan, YichengKavaklı, KorayUrey, HakanSun, Qi,  and Akşit, Kaan
    SPIE Jan 2024
  3. Multi-color Holograms Improve Brightness in Holographic Displays
    In SIGGRAPH ASIA 2023 Conference Papers Dec 2023
  4. ChromaCorrect: Prescription Correction in Virtual Reality Headsets through Perceptual Guidance
    Biomedical Optics Express Apr 2023
  5. HoloBeam: Paper-Thin Near-Eye Displays
    Akşit, Kaan,  and Itoh, Yuta
    In 2023 IEEE Conference Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR) Mar 2023
  6. Realistic Defocus Blur for Multiplane Computer-Generated Holography
    Kavaklı, KorayItoh, YutaUrey, Hakan,  and Akşit, Kaan
    IEEE VR 2023 Mar 2023
  7. Unrolled Primal-Dual Networks for Lensless Cameras
    Kingshott, OliverAntipa, NickBostan, Emrah,  and Akşit, Kaan
    Optics Express Dec 2022
  8. Optimizing vision and visuals: lectures on cameras, displays and perception
    ACM SIGGRAPH 2022 Aug 2022
  9. Metameric Varifocal Holograms
    In 2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR) Mar 2022
  10. Learned holographic light transport
    Kavaklı, KorayUrey, Hakan,  and Akşit, Kaan
    Applied Optics Feb 2022
  11. Beyond blur: Real-time ventral metamers for foveated rendering
    ACM Transactions on Graphics Aug 2021
  12. Sensicut: Material-aware laser cutting using speckle sensing and deep learning
    In The 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology Aug 2021
  13. Beaming displays
    Itoh, YutaKaminokado, Takumi,  and Akşit, Kaan
    IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics Mar 2021
  14. Telelife: The Future of Remote Living
    Frontiers in Virtual Reality Mar 2021
  15. Patch scanning displays: spatiotemporal enhancement for displays
    Akşit, Kaan
    Optics express Mar 2020
  16. Toward standardized classification of foveated displays
    IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics Mar 2020
  17. Optical gaze tracking with spatially-sparse single-pixel detectors
    In 2020 IEEE international symposium on mixed and augmented reality (ISMAR) Mar 2020
  18. Manufacturing application-driven foveated near-eye displays
    IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics Mar 2019
  19. Near-eye display and tracking technologies for virtual and augmented reality
    In Computer Graphics Forum Mar 2019
  20. Foveated AR: dynamically-foveated augmented reality display.
    ACM Trans. Graph. Mar 2019
  21. Matching prescription & visual acuity: Towards ar for humans
    Mar 2019
  22. Steerable application-adaptive near eye displays
    Mar 2018
  23. Focusar: Auto-focus augmented reality eyeglasses for both real world and virtual imagery
    IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics Mar 2018
  24. Wide field of view varifocal near-eye display using see-through deformable membrane mirrors
    IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics Mar 2017
  25. Membrane AR: varifocal, wide field of view augmented reality display from deformable membranes
    Mar 2017
  26. Near-eye varifocal augmented reality display using see-through screens
    ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) Mar 2017
  27. Slim near-eye display using pinhole aperture arrays
    Akşit, KaanKautz, Jan,  and Luebke, David
    Applied optics Mar 2015
  28. From sound to sight: Using audio processing to enable visible light communication
    Schmid, Stefan, Schwyn, Daniel,  Akşit, KaanCorbellini, GiorgioGross, Thomas R,  and Mangold, Stefan
    In 2014 IEEE Globecom Workshops (GC Wkshps) Mar 2014
  29. Connecting networks of toys and smartphones with visible light communication
    IEEE communications magazine Jul 2014
  30. Head-worn mixed reality projection display application
    Akşit, KaanKade, DanielÖzcan, Oğuzhan,  and Urey, Hakan
    In Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology Nov 2014
  31. Super stereoscopy technique for comfortable and realistic 3D displays
    Optics letters Nov 2014
  32. Dynamic exit pupil trackers for autostereoscopic displays
    Optics express Jun 2013
  33. Multi-view autostereoscopic projection display using rotating screen
    Eldes, OsmanAkşit, Kaan,  and Urey, Hakan
    Optics Express Nov 2013
  34. Portable 3D Laser Projector using Mixed Polarization Technique
    Akşit, KaanEldes, O.Viswanathen, S.Freeman, M.,  and Urey, H.
    Journal of Display Technology Sep 2012
  35. Heart rate monitoring via remote photoplethysmography with motion artifacts reduction
    Cennini, GiovanniArguel, JeremieAkşit, Kaan,  and Leest, Arno
    Optics Express Mar 2010