Doctor of Philosophy, 2000.
Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Thesis Title: "Understanding Expressive Action."
Minor: "Stochastics, Dynamics, and Recursive Filtering."
Master of Science, 1996.
Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Thesis Title: "Pfinder: Real-Time Tracking of the Human Body"
Bachelor of Science, 1993
Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Thesis Title: "Dynamic Simulation of Large Systems: Trees Blowing in
the Wind."
Minor: Cognitive Psychology.
Secondary Education, 1989
Western Reserve Academy,
Hudson, OH, USA
Research Scientist
Mitsubishi Electric
Research Laboratories, Cambridge, MA, USA
Research Laboratory
January 2001 - present
Invention of perceptual and context aware systems for human interface
and automation. Actively involved in design and creation of novel
perceptual technologies.
Senior Perceptual Engineer
Perceptive Network Technologies, Inc., Waltham, MA, USA
March 2000 - January 2001
Founding member of a perceptual sciences company dedicated to bringing
context-aware communication technologies to the desktop, to help
users manage converging information technologies.
Research Assistant
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge, MA, USA
Media Laboratory,
Vision and Modeling Group
August 1994 - March 2000
Designed, built, and evaluated artificial perceptual systems for
human-computer interface and situation awareness. Managed junior
graduate students, staff, and undergraduate researchers. Presented
papers, invited talks, and live demonstrations at
conferences. Developed perceptual tool kits (Pfinder, STIVE, and Dyna)
used internationally by many academic and research
institutions. Extensive interaction with the media and senior officers
of corporate sponsors.
Engineer and Dynamicist
Boston Dynamics Inc.,
Cambridge, MA, USA
June 1993 - August 1994
Design and programming work in dynamics, graphics, contact modeling,
and animation. Extensive experience with systems ranging from
supercomputers, to embedded controllers. Work on electric and
hydraulic force-feedback systems, and magnetic position-sensing
systems. Developed many physics-based simulations including: robots,
elevators, frogs, and humans. Consulting environment with tight
deadlines for international clients in academics, research, industry,
and the military.
Undergraduate Researcher
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Media Laboratory,
Advanced Human Interface Group
October 1989 - June 1993
Programming and systems support for research on non-traditional
interface technology. Innumerable small projects and several larger
projects including a pattern recognition system for eye movement and a
scripted, networked, object-oriented graphics system that pre-dated
similar commercial systems such as SGI Inventor.
Instructor
Harvard University, Division of
Continuing Education, Cambridge, MA, USA
Extension School
2002 - present
Co-teach
"Introduction to Applied Computer Science", a hands-on, general
education course that introduces students to several facets of
computer science research. I design topic modules, write lab
assignments, lecture, and teach individually during laboratory
sessions. I coordinate with my co-instructor and work with a
teaching assistant.
Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Mentor
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Media Laboratory
1996 - 2000
Supervise undergraduate researchers engaged research projects as
individuals and small groups up to five students. Responsible for
project design, daily advice, and evaluation.
Laboratory Teaching Assistant
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science
6.004 - Computation Structures
February December 1992
Assisted students building and debugging computers and evaluated
comprehension of lab exercises.
Association for Computing Machinery, Member
IEEE Computer Society, Senior Member
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, Member
Google Scholar Top-ranked paper for the following search phrases:
Citeseer paper rankings:
IEEE Computer Society: elevation to Senior Member status, 2005
Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society: elevation to Full Member status, 1999
Tau Beta Pi, 1993
Eta Kappa Nu, 1993
"Minimalism in Ubiquitous Interface Design", Christopher R. Wren and Carson J. Reynolds. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, September 2004, 8(5), pp. 370-373.
"Perceptive Spaces for Performance and Entertainment: Untethered Interaction using Computer Vision and Audition." Christopher R. Wren, Flavia Sparacino, Ali J. Azarbayejani, Trevor J. Darrell, Thad E. Starner, Akira Kotani, Chloe M. Chao, Michal Hlavac, Kenneth B. Russell, Alex P. Pentland. Applied Artificial Intelligence, June 1997, 11(4), pp. 267-284.
"Pfinder: Real-Time Tracking of the Human Body." Christopher R. Wren, Ali J. Azarbayejani, Trevor Darrell, and Alex P. Pentland. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, July 1997, 19(7), pp. 780-785.
United States Patent 6,680,745: "Videoconferencing method with tracking of face and dynamic bandwidth allocation." Julian L. Center, Jr. and Christopher R. Wren. .
Allowed United States Patent Application 20030038875 : "Depth Segmentation with Virtual Surface Margins." Yuri A. Ivanov, Alex P. Pentland and Christopher R. Wren.
United States Patent Application: "Spectral Similarity for Object Detection." Christopher R. Wren, Fatih Porikli.
United States Patent Application: "Efficient Hierarchical Decomposition of Temporal Patterns." Christopher R. Wren and David C. Minnen.
United States Patent Application: "Traffic and Geometry Modeling with Sensor Networks." Christopher R. Wren.
United States Patent Application 20020163572 : "Methods of establishing a communications link using perceptual sensing of a user's presence." Julian L. Center, Jr., Christopher R. Wren, Sumit Basu, Evgeniy Gusyatin.
United States Patent Application 20020113687 : "Method of extending image-based face recognition systems to utilize multi-view image sequences and audio information." Julian L. Center, Jr., Christopher R. Wren, and Sumit Basu.
"Perception for Human Motion Understanding," Christopher R. Wren. in ``Innovations in Machine Intelligence & Robot Perception'' Eds. Patnaik, Jain, Tzafestas, and Banoore. Springer. in press.
"Learning Gestures and Words for Individualized, Adaptive Interfaces." Alex P. Pentland, Deb Roy, Christopher R. Wren. Human Computer Interface International 1999 Special Session on Gesture Interaction, Munich, Germany, August 24, 1999.
"Perceptive Spaces for Performance and Entertainment (Revised)." Christopher R. Wren, Flavia Sparacino, Ali J. Azarbayejani, Trevor J. Darrell, James W. Davis, Thad E. Starner, Akira Kotani, Chloe M. Chao, Michal Hlavac, Kenneth B. Russell, Aaron Bobick, Alex P. Pentland. ATR Workshop on Virtual Communication Environments: Bridges over Art/Kansei and VR Technologies, Kyoto, Japan, April 13, 1998.
"Activity Mining in Sensor Networks"
NIPS 2004 Workshop on Activity Recognition and Discovery.
Whistler, BC, Canada, December 2004.
"Finding Structure in Pedestrian Flow."
Boston University Vision Group Lecture Series. Boston, MA, USA,
December 2003.
"Finding Structure in Pedestrian Flow."
University of Washington Computer Science Lecture Series. Seattle,
WA, USA, October 2003.
"Finding Structure in Pedestrian Flow."
Microsoft Research Ubiquitous Computing Seminar. Redmond, WA, USA,
October 2003.
"Minimalism in Ubiquitous Interface Design."
Georgia Institute of Technology GVU Lecture Series. Atlanta, GA,
USA, September 2002.
"Models for Human Motion."
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center Math Department Seminar.
Hawthorne, NY, USA, June 1, 2001.
"The Smart Room, Its Status and Future Research." Tele-Immersion Workshop, Chicago, IL, USA, October 23-24, 1996.
"Waviz: Spectral Similarity for Object Detection" Christopher R. Wren, Fatih Porikli. IEEE International Workshop on Performance Evaluation of Tracking and Surveillance. Breckenridge, CO, USA. January 2005.
"Interactive Projection" Paul Beardsley, Clifton Forlines, Ramesh Raskar, Jeroen Van Baar and Christopher R. Wren. ACM SIGGRAPH 2004 Emerging Technologies, Los Angeles, CA, USA. August 2004.
"Finding Temporal Patterns by Data Decomposition."David C. Minnen and Christopher R. Wren. IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, Seoul, Korea, May 2004.
"Self-configuring, Lightweight Sensor Networks for Ubiquitous Computing." Christopher R. Wren and Srinivasa Rao. International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, pp. 205-206, Seattle, WA, USA. September 2003.
"Parsimony & Transparency in Ubiquitous Interface Design." Christopher R. Wren and Carson J. Reynolds. International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, pp. 31-33, Göteborg, Sweden, September 2002.
"Browsing 3-D spaces with 3-D vision: body-driven navigation through the Internet City" Flavia Sparacino, Christopher R. Wren, Ali J. Azarbayejani, Alex P. Pentland. Proceedings of 3DPVT: 1st International Symposium on 3D Data Processing Visualization and Transmission, Padova, Italy, June 19-21 2002
"Volumetric Operations with Surface Margins." Christopher R. Wren, Yuri A. Ivanov. IEEE Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Technical Sketches, Kauai, HI, USA. December 2001.
"Combining Audio and Video in Perceptive Spaces." Christopher R. Wren, Sumit Basu, Flavia Sparacino, Alex P. Pentland. First International Workshop on Managing Interaction, Dublin, Ireland, December 1999.
"Understanding Purposeful Human Motion." Christopher R. Wren and Alex P. Pentland. 1999 IEEE International Workshop on Modeling People, Kerkyra, Greece, September 20, 1999
"City of News." Flavia Sparacino, Richard DeVaul, Christopher R. Wren, Ronald MacNeil, Glorianna Davenport, Alex P. Pentland. SIGGRAPH Visual Proceedings, Los Angeles, CA, USA. August 8-13, 1999
"Augmented Performance in Dance and Theater." Flavia Sparacino, Christopher R. Wren, Glorianna Davenport, Alex P. Pentland. International Dance and Technology, Arizona State University, Feb. 25-28, 1999.
"Digital Circus: a computer-vision based interactive Virtual Studio." Flavia Sparacino, Christopher R. Wren, Glorianna Davenport, Alex P. Pentland IMAGINA, Monte Carlo, Monaco, January 18-20 1999.
"Real-time 3D Motion Capture." Thanarat Horprasert, Ismail Haritaoglu, David Harwood, Larry S. Davis, Christopher R. Wren, Alex P. Pentland. Workshop on Perceptual User Interfaces, San Francisco, CA, USA, November 4-6, 1998
"Dynamic Modeling of Human Motion." Christopher R. Wren and Alex P. Pentland. Proceedings of the Third IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, Nara, Japan, April 14-16, 1998
"Perceptive Spaces: Learning Dynamic Models of Human Behavior." Christopher R. Wren, Sumit Basu, Alex P. Pentland. Workshop on Perceptual User Interfaces, Banff, Canada, October 19-21, 1997
"Improvisational Theater Space." Flavia Sparacino, Kristin Hall, Christopher R. Wren, Glorianna Davenport, and Alex P. Pentland. The Sixth Biennial Symposium for Arts and Technology, Connecticut College, New London, CT, USA, February 27 - March 2, 1997.
"Pfinder: Real-Time Tracking of the Human Body." Christopher R. Wren, Ali J. Azarbayejani, Trevor Darrell, and Alex P. Pentland. Second IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, Killington, VT, USA, October 1996.
"Real-time 3-D Tracking of the Human Body." Ali J. Azarbayejani, Christopher R. Wren, Alex P. Pentland. Proceedings of IMAGE'COM 96, Bordeaux, France, May 1996
"HyperPlex: a World of 3D Interactive Digital Movies." Flavia Sparacino, Christopher R. Wren, Alex P. Pentland, Glorianna Davenport. Proc. of IJCAI'95 Workshop on Entertainment and AI/Alife. Montreal, Canada. pp. 77-81. August 1995.
"Interacting With Projections Using iLamp Projectors." Paul Beardsley, Shane Booth, Clifton Forlines, Ramesh Raskar, Jeroen Van Baar and Christopher R. Wren. ACM SIGGRAPH 2004 Emerging Technologies, Los Angeles, CA, USA. August 2004.
"Wearable City of News." Flavia Sparacino, Steve Schwartz, Christopher R. Wren, Richard W. DeVaul, Glorianna Davenport, Alex P. Pentland. ACM SIGGRAPH 1999 Millennium Motel, Los Angeles, CA, USA. August 1999.
"Shall We Dance." Kazuyuki Ebihara, Jun Ohya, Thanarat Horprasert, Ismail Haritaoglu, David Harwood, Larry S. Davis, Christopher R. Wren, Alex P. Pentland. ACM SIGGRAPH 1998 Enhanced Realities, Orlando, FL, USA. July 1998
"Toco the Toucan." Deb Roy, Tony Jebara, Christopher R. Wren, William Tomlinson, Alex P. Pentland. ACM SIGGRAPH 1997 Electric Garden, Los Angeles, CA, USA. August 1997
"Smart Spaces." Ali J. Azarbayejani, Christopher R. Wren, Andrew Wilson, David Becker, Nuria Oliver, Deb Roy, Flavia Sparacino, Francois Berard, Alex P. Pentland. ACM SIGGRAPH 1996 Digital Bayou, New Orleans, LA, USA. August 1996
"Dreams and Illusions." Trevor Darrell, Bruce Blumberg, Michael P. Johnson, Christopher R. Wren, Pattie Maes, Alex P. Pentland. ACM SIGGRAPH 1995, Los Angeles, CA, USA. August 1995
"Trans-Atlantic SURVIVE." Thad Starner, Kenneth Russell, Christopher R. Wren, Martin R. Friedman, Alex P. Pentland. 1994 Schools Lecture, BT Laboratories, Martlesham, England, October 1994.