4 ms·

Ask HN: How to break into AR/MR Industry

2 points by mendeza 10y ago

I am in graduate school at Cornell and I am super passionate about augmented reality and mixed reality. I am in need of advice on how to break into the AR/MR/VR industry. I am having a hard time getting interviews for top companies (Magic Leap, Oculus,Apple), and it is incredibly frustrating since I feel I am very qualified to work at the companies in the role of a computer vision or graphics developer. I have strong knowledge in computer vision and computer graphics, and I have worked on projects at MIT and Verizon building Augmented Reality apps. I keep having a hard time getting interviews for top AR/VR companies such as Magic Leap and Oculus, and I really want to work in these companies to be at the forefront of the industry. I am thinking starting to freelance for small companies and brands to build AR as several companies have reached out to me to develop AR, but I feel that working for a company that is pushing the industry forward will be more valuable. Any advice will be super helpful, and I am interested in hearing about any opportunities if anyone knows of anything. Shoot me an email at hub503bub@gmail.com.

Sologram 10y ago
Oh! After this much education, u have bias. The only MR working gadget, Hololens is from MS. Did you try them? They are ahead of every one.
- mendeza 10y ago
  How do I have bias? I have seen many different platforms facilitate AR and how AR has progressed since 2011. How do you even define MR, when Google coins MR for their VR head tracking, but magic leap talk about MR as being able to see in front of you. You are mistaken that hololens is the only device that does MR. Occipital does better MR in my opinion, as they have a larger FOV and they leverage SceneKit, an amazing platform to design 3D games and software. Have you seen Daquri and Meta's MR headsets as well?
  - Sologram 10y ago
    U do not have clarity what is MR. U think Occipital is better than Hololens and u think Occipital does MR. With the current knowledge & information, You will not get through first level interview if u get invitation.
    - mendeza 10y ago
      Please then, enlighten me with your understanding of MR. What do you think are important technical and non-technical problems in MR that I should be looked more into. If you can't offer any constructive input or advice, then your trolling is not welcome here.
vitovito 10y ago
I'm not in the current AR/MR/VR industry, but I have friends and colleagues who are, and I worked in VR last time it was a thing. I'd guess you're missing one or more of: (a) serious EE/ME experience, (b) having contributed to computer vision/graphics instead of just understanding the current state of the art and/or tooling, and/or (c) having designed and built AR/MR/VR hardware and software systems from scratch instead of building apps for existing systems or using existing tooling. At a company that is inventing something new, the most valuable, sought-after hires are of people who invent and advance the company's work; and people who can interface between engineering and content. The former means people who invent and write algorithms for OpenCV, not people who simply use OpenCV. Or having built AR hardware and software in combination, and therefore have a deep, practical understanding of the tradeoffs in different generations of hardware and different methods of projection, etc., rather than having only built apps for existing AR toolkits or platforms. The latter means software developers who can also work with the hardware. They may not be required to design a circuit board or engineer some optics, but they understand the operation of the hardware, can fix it if it breaks, can diagnose hardware problems and provide the sort of hardware bug reports every software developer wishes an end-user could provide, etc. (An example of this would be the technical artist in video game studios. They're a respected, senior artist [so they can make actual art, and so their processes to do so are reasonable and representative] who can also program, and either creates tools for artists, or is the interface between the artists and the tool developers.) If you aren't one or the other, then you're a step removed from where the company is at: inventing new things. They don't have the time or manpower to hold your hand. You're stuck only being able to build for the things that already exist, not helping them advance. It's why Microsoft's #1 recommendation for non-technical designers who want to get into HoloLens work is to become technical enough to be proficient in Unity, if not the entire Windows 10 development toolchain. If they aren't self-sufficient enough to be able to get all of their work onto a device on their own, HoloLens isn't ready for them yet. It's not plug-and-play, everyone involved needs to be able to wear all the hats. If you can't show that you're already inventing new things yourself; or that you have a practical, working knowledge of the entire system, the kind that comes with having built something from scratch; then there may not be a place for you yet.
- Sologram 10y ago

2 points by mendeza 10y ago

Sologram 10y ago

Oh! After this much education, u have bias. The only MR working gadget, Hololens is from MS. Did you try them? They are ahead of every one.

mendeza 10y ago
How do I have bias? I have seen many different platforms facilitate AR and how AR has progressed since 2011. How do you even define MR, when Google coins MR for their VR head tracking, but magic leap talk about MR as being able to see in front of you. You are mistaken that hololens is the only device that does MR. Occipital does better MR in my opinion, as they have a larger FOV and they leverage SceneKit, an amazing platform to design 3D games and software. Have you seen Daquri and Meta's MR headsets as well?
- Sologram 10y ago
  U do not have clarity what is MR. U think Occipital is better than Hololens and u think Occipital does MR. With the current knowledge & information, You will not get through first level interview if u get invitation.
  - mendeza 10y ago
    Please then, enlighten me with your understanding of MR. What do you think are important technical and non-technical problems in MR that I should be looked more into. If you can't offer any constructive input or advice, then your trolling is not welcome here.

vitovito 10y ago

I'm not in the current AR/MR/VR industry, but I have friends and colleagues who are, and I worked in VR last time it was a thing. I'd guess you're missing one or more of: (a) serious EE/ME experience, (b) having contributed to computer vision/graphics instead of just understanding the current state of the art and/or tooling, and/or (c) having designed and built AR/MR/VR hardware and software systems from scratch instead of building apps for existing systems or using existing tooling. At a company that is inventing something new, the most valuable, sought-after hires are of people who invent and advance the company's work; and people who can interface between engineering and content. The former means people who invent and write algorithms for OpenCV, not people who simply use OpenCV. Or having built AR hardware and software in combination, and therefore have a deep, practical understanding of the tradeoffs in different generations of hardware and different methods of projection, etc., rather than having only built apps for existing AR toolkits or platforms. The latter means software developers who can also work with the hardware. They may not be required to design a circuit board or engineer some optics, but they understand the operation of the hardware, can fix it if it breaks, can diagnose hardware problems and provide the sort of hardware bug reports every software developer wishes an end-user could provide, etc. (An example of this would be the technical artist in video game studios. They're a respected, senior artist [so they can make actual art, and so their processes to do so are reasonable and representative] who can also program, and either creates tools for artists, or is the interface between the artists and the tool developers.) If you aren't one or the other, then you're a step removed from where the company is at: inventing new things. They don't have the time or manpower to hold your hand. You're stuck only being able to build for the things that already exist, not helping them advance. It's why Microsoft's #1 recommendation for non-technical designers who want to get into HoloLens work is to become technical enough to be proficient in Unity, if not the entire Windows 10 development toolchain. If they aren't self-sufficient enough to be able to get all of their work onto a device on their own, HoloLens isn't ready for them yet. It's not plug-and-play, everyone involved needs to be able to wear all the hats. If you can't show that you're already inventing new things yourself; or that you have a practical, working knowledge of the entire system, the kind that comes with having built something from scratch; then there may not be a place for you yet.

Sologram 10y ago