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Hi, I am Bala! I am a 5th year PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley. I am advised by professor Björn Hartmann. I completed my Bachelors at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. My Bachelors' thesis - "IoT enabled CNC Milling machine" won the best interdisciplinary thesis project amongst all engineering departments and the best thesis in Mechanical engineering.
My research interests are primarily in the domain of Virtual/Augmented reality. With AR/VR set to enter and modify out homes, cities, workspaces and daily lives in unimaginable ways, my research hopes to address the new challenges and problems that would arise in these scenarios. My research explores the applications and usages of AR/VR for a diverse set of activities, such as interacting with robots, creating art forms, 3D designing workflows, Augmented Reality teleoperative support for maintenance and Enhancing learning using AR/VR. You can also contact me at bala@eecs.berkeley.edu
In the past I have interned at Microsoft Research (Seattle), Adobe Research (San Francisco) and Autodesk Research (Toronto), and have gotten a chance to work with amazing mentors and collaborators: Cuong Nguyen, Stephen DiVerdi, Fraser Anderson, Tovi Grossman, George Fitzmaurice, and Andy Wilson.
My Publications
Interactive Mixed-Dimensional Media for Cross-Dimensional Collaboration in Mixed Reality Environments - Page
Balasaravanan Thoravi Kumaravel, Bjoern Hartmann
Frontier in Virtual Reality Journal, 12 May 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2022.766336
DreamStream: Immersive and Interactive Spectating in VR - PDF page
Balasaravanan Thoravi Kumaravel, Andrew D. Wilson
In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '22).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300514
WebTransceiVR: Asymmetrical Communication Between Multiple VR and Non-VR Users Online - PDF coming soon
Haohua Lyu*, Cyrus Vachha*, Qianyi Chen*, Odysseus Pyrinis, Avery Liou, Balasaravanan Thoravi Kumaravel, Bjoern Hartmann.
In Extended abstracts of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '22).
TransceiVR: Bridging Asymmetrical Communication Between External and VR Users - PDF page
Balasaravanan Thoravi Kumaravel, Cuong Nguyen, Stephen DiVerdi, and Björn Hartmann.
In Proceedings of ACM Conference on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '20) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3379337.3415827
Living Paper: Authoring AR Narratives Across Digital and Tangible Media
Stephanie Claudino Daffara, Anna Brewer, Balasaravanan Thoravi Kumaravel, and Bjoern Hartmann.
In Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '20). Association for Computing Machinery
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3334480.3383091
Loki: Facilitating Remote Instruction of Physical Tasks Using Bi-Directional Mixed-Reality Telepresence - PDF page
Balasaravanan Thoravi Kumaravel, Fraser Anderson, George Fitzmaurice, Björn Hartmann, Tovi Grossman.
In Proceedings of ACM Conference on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST '19) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3332165.3347872
TutoriVR: A Video-Based Tutorial System for Design Applications in Virtual Reality - PDF page
Balasaravanan Thoravi Kumaravel, Cuong Nguyen, Stephen DiVerdi, and Björn Hartmann.
In Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '19).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300514
Development of an Internet of Things enabled Manufacturing system for tool wear characterization - page
B. T. Kumaravel, R. Bhattacharyya, J. Siegel, S. E. Sarma and N. Arunachalam,
IEEE 3rd International Symposium in Robotics and Manufacturing Automation (ROMA), Kuala Lumpur, 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ROMA.2017.8231733
Speed vs efficiency and storage type in portable energy systems
M. E. Kiziroglou, M. Cowell, B. T. Kumaravel, D. E. Boyle, J. W. Evans, P. K. Wright, and E. M. Yeatman
International Conference on Micro and Nanotechnology for Power Generation and Energy Conversion Applications (Power MEMS 2017)
My Projects
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