Simon Drouin

Associate Professor

Department of Software and IT Engineering

École de Technologie Supérieure

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Research interests

Manipulating virtual 3D objects should be as natural and intuitive as manipulating physical ones. In my research projects, I combine principles of human visual perception, computer vision, human-computer interaction and computer graphics achieve this goal. More specifically, I use various sensing devices and virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) displays to facilitate the interaction between clinicians and 3D medical images such as those produced MRI scanners. In the recent years, I have focused on neurosurgical applications, where VR can help plan a procedure while AR facilitates the execution in the operating room.

In my spare time, I develop Lines, an experimental collaborative animation program.

Bio

I obtained a bachelors degree in Computer Engineering from École Polytechnique de Montréal before going on to develop animation creation tools and game engine modules for Ubisoft Entertainment inc. I then completed a masters degree in computer science in the Mobile Robotics Lab at McGill University. After that, I spent two years at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) where I built custom animation tools and contributed to the development of the SANDDE stereoscopic animation system.

I have been collaborating with the NIST laboratory of the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) since 2002. As a research engineer there, I developed the open source IBIS image-guided neurosurgery platform. During my PhD (Biomedical Engineering, McGill University), I extended the functionality of the platform to study the benefit of augmented reality (AR) displays to guide neurosurgical operations and brought the result to the operating rooms of the MNI. As a postdoctoral researcher in the Surgical Planning Laboratory at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Harvard Medical School), I pushed interactive AR technology further, taking advantage of their AMIGO surgical suite.