Dr. Ing. Valter Drazic

Principal Scientist

-PhD, KIT (Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie), Germany.

-MSc, école d'ingénieurs Télécom-Physique, France.

Achievements

30 Publications

79 Granted

175 Filed

Professional experience
Expertise
  • Augmented and Mixed Reality (AR/MR) systems, optics and physics.
  • Nano-optics enhanced surface relief gratings.
  • High efficiency diffractive optical elements.
  • AR/MR wafer, in-coupler, EPE and out-coupler.
  • Optics of displays: LCD, OLED, DLP, Plasma, Backlightings.
  • Cameras and acquisition systems.
  • Lightfields.
  • Lens design.
  • Illumination systems.
  • Projection optics.
  • HDR acquisition, colorimetry.
  • GPGPU calculations in cuda or OpenCL.
  • Computer Generated  Holography : diffraction theory, fast algorithms, CGH calculation.
Education

Degrees

1993

 

1989

 

1988

PhD, 3D Optical Transfer Functions in Optical Microscopy.
Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie.
Master of Science in Photonics.
University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France.
Master of Science in Optical Engineering.
Ecole Télécom-Physique, Strasbourg, France.

Languages

French

English

German

Croatian

Serbian

Native language.

Fluent. 18 month of working assignment in the USA.

Fluent. 5 years of working experience in Germany.

Native language.

Native language.

Softwares

Optics

Physics

Coding

Optics Studio (Zemax), ASAP, Trace Pro, Code V, Oslo, Solstis.

Comsol (beginner).

Visual Studio, C, C++, Cuda, OpenCL, Matlab.

Last position
Freelance
Optics expert

2023-2024

Simulations and innovation for Marelli France:

  • Panorama Head Up Display

Optimization using Zemax of a HUD. Bright backlighting. Weekly reporting in front of the client. Measurements lead of multi national teams.

  • Virtual Head Up Display

For automotive industry. Innovative display system.

Principal Scientist

2018-2021

Technical lead of the Digital Holography group (from 01/2021):

  • Light-Guiding project

Waveguide based optical system for AR glasses, based on Surface Relief Gratings. Analyzes and optimization of the system performances, trade-off grating efficiencies and waveguide thickness, combiner architecture, prototyping and test of proof of concepts.

  • Computer Generated Holography

Development of a framework based on multi-layer scene coding for the calculation of CGHs.

Details of previous assignements
2010 to 2012
July 2010
2007 to 2009
2001 to 2006
From 1993
SENIOR SCIENTIST.
European FP7 project OSIRIS, Work Package Leader for Video lightfield camera.
Thomson Research & Innovation, 3D Content and Acquisition Lab, Rennes, France.
•
Management of the 3D content acquisition in the frame of the EU OSIRIS project.
•
Development of the first worldwide video plenoptic camera. (Lab camera).
TECHNICAL EXPERT, OPTICS FOR DISPLAYS.
Thomson Research & Innovation, Displays Lab, Rennes, France.
•
Prototype design of a 50" DLP rear projector illuminated by LEDs, private show at IFA-Berlin
2005.
•
Prototype design of a Slim DLP rear projector, presented at the CES-Las Vegas, 2005.
•
Doubling of the light efficiency of an organic LED (OLED). Collaboration with the CEA at
Orsay.
Thomson, TV/Video Business Unit, Indianapolis, USA.
•
Development of the very first three-LCOS rear projector product. Commercialized product.
•
Assigned in the USA as the coordinator between the research and the business unit.
R & D ENGINEER IN OPTICS AND PROJECT LEADER FROM 97.
Thomson R & D, Displays Lab in Strasbourg (93-96) and Rennes (96-01), France.
•
Stray light analysis in a CRT rear projector for Thomson Indianapolis.
•
Simulation of the light efficiency of a plasma screen for Thomson Plasma, Grenoble.
•
Development of innovative illumination systems for microdisplays.
2013 to 2018
PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST
Light-guiding project
•
Investigation of wavelength size structures for the generation of dense photonic jets in the
near field. With application to:
o
Light extraction from OLED displays.
o
Disruptive pixel architecture for image sensors
o
New optical components for AR type Head Mounted Displays
Lightfield Technologies project
•
Invented a new file format for Light-field data:
o
Agnostic to acquisition systems.
o
Ray based in the object space.
•
Invented an extended pinhole camera model for thick lens systems.
Leading of several exploratory projects
•
Plenoptic Super Resolution
o
Coaching of 2 interns and a post doctoral position.
o
State of the art de-mosaicking and depth calculation.
o
New ways of processing plenoptic data led to state of the art view rendering.
•
Light-field sensor
o
Aberration corrections.
o
Field of view extension of plenoptic cameras.
One of the exploratory projects successfully transferred into a new group project on
Lightfield technologies.
Demos and talks
•
Demo of real-time fusion rig at Technicolor Science & Technology (S&T) annual meeting ’13.
•
Demo on image refocusing on a tablet and plenoptic signal processing at S&T meeting ’14.
•
Talk on computational photography at S&T meeting ’13.
•
Presentation of Light-field acquisition at S&T meeting ’14.
•
Lab presentation on Optics for Augmented Reality glasses ’17.
Real-time Disparity estimator on GPU
•
Development of a Real-Time Disparity estimator on GPU. Breakthrough for speed-precision.
•
Numerous participations to demonstrations in the field of real time estimations, real-time
image interpolation for 3D workflows, including on streaming content.
•
The estimator is cited in “Multi-view Acquisition and Advanced Depth Map Processing
Techniques”, a chapter from “3D Future Internet Media” book.
TUTORIALS
•
Tutorials on projection displays at Club Visu 1999
•
Tutorials on OLED technology at Ecole Supérieure d’Optique, Orsay 2004
INTERN COACHING
•
From 1994 to 2018 : coaching of 15 internship, most of them from Ecole Supérieure d’Optique, Orsay
SUBCONTRACTING WORK FOR BUS
•
Optimization of emitting cell geometry for improved light extraction for THOMSON Plasma 1999
•
Stray light suppression in CRT rear projectors for TV & Video Indianapolis 1999
•
18 month mission in Indianapolis USA as an optical expert in the TV Video business unit 2001-2002
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS: PRODUCTS, PROTOTYPES AND DEMONSTRATIONS
PRODUCTS
•
Successful collaboration to the development of the first worldwide commercialized HD rear-projector with reflective
microdisplays in 2001
PROTOTYPES SHOWN IN EXHIBITIONS
•
Realization of the light engines for:
o
Babel front projector, shown at IFA Berlin 1995 as an advanced product
o
Slim projector “TURBO” shown at CES 2005 with a one optical component illumination system
o
Prototype of the first LED illuminated micro display rear projector, private show at IFA Berlin 2005
•
Plenoptic camera and multi-view video shots, to be presented at OSIRIS final review 2010
•
Real time view interpolation with content adaptation on streaming content, 3D LIVE final project review
•
Real time view interpolation from stereo to autostereoscopic content of live 3D capture, with rendering on
autostereoscopic display.
PROTOTYPES
•
From 1993 to 1999: realization of light engines for numerous prototypes intended to be released as products.
•
Backlights for viewfinders shown to Grass Valley 2004
MISCELLANEOUS
•
Daily swimming for 20 years, squash, badminton.
•
Wedding photographer and amateur photographer.