James McCrae

About Me

I worked at Magic Leap as an Independent Contributor for the Synthetic Data and Cloud Validation team, as a Senior Manager of the System Applications team, and as a Lead Software Engineer on the Universe team.

I was the CEO and co-founder of immersive web startup Janus VR.

I studied at the University of Toronto, working in the DGP lab with supervisor Prof. Karan Singh. I received a Bachelor of Science in 2006, Master of Science in 2008, and Doctor of Philosophy in 2014.

My PhD work is on planar section representations of 3D shape, and before that I explored problems in 3D navigation, curve fairing, and sketch-based interfaces. I am a founder and creator of the flatfab modelling software, which culminates the interactive aspect of my PhD work.

In 2015, I was given the University of Toronto's Inventor of the Year award, and the Alain Fournier Award for best Canadian Computer Graphics Dissertation.

Publications

	FlatFitFab: Interactive Modeling with Planar Sections James McCrae, Nobuyuki Umetani, Karan Singh User Interface Software and Technology, 2014 (voted "best presentation" by people's choice) [PDF] [Project] [Video]
	Surface Perception of Planar Abstractions James McCrae, Niloy Mitra, Karan Singh Symposium on Applied Perception, 2013 (appears in ACM Transactions on Applied Perception) [PDF] [Project]
	Slices: A Shape-proxy Based on Planar Sections James McCrae, Karan Singh, Niloy Mitra SIGGRAPH Asia, 2011 (appears in ACM Transactions on Graphics) [PDF] [Project]
	Neatening sketched strokes using piecewise French Curves James McCrae, Karan Singh Sketch-Based Interfaces and Modeling, 2011 [PDF] [Project]
	Exploring the Design Space of Multiscale 3D Orientation James McCrae, Michael Glueck, Tovi Grossman, Azam Khan, Karan Singh Advanced Visual Interfaces, 2010 [PDF] [Video]
	Sketch-Based Path Design James McCrae, Karan Singh Graphics Interface, 2009 [PDF] [Video] [Code]
	Multiscale 3D Navigation James McCrae, Igor Mordatch, Michael Glueck, Azam Khan Interactive 3D Graphics and Games, 2009 [PDF] [Video]
	Sketching Piecewise Clothoid Curves James McCrae, Karan Singh Sketch-Based Interfaces and Modeling, 2008 (best paper award) [PDF] [Project]

Collaborative Publications

	True2Form: 3D Curve Networks from 2D Sketches via Selective Regularization Baoxuan Xu, William Chang, Alla Sheffer, Adrien Bousseau, James McCrae, Karan Singh SIGGRAPH, 2014 [Project]
	Toward A Unified Representation System of Performance-Related Data Ebenezer Hailemariam, Michael Glueck, Ramtin Attar, Alex Tessier, James McCrae, Azam Khan eSim, 2010 [Project]
	BIM-based Building Performance Monitor Ramtin Attar, Ebenezer Hailemariam, Michael Glueck, Alex Tessier, James McCrae, Azam Khan Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design, 2010 [Project]
	Data-Driven Curvature for Real-Time Line Drawing of Dynamic Scenes Evangelos Kalogerakis, Derek Nowrouzezahrai, Patricio Simari, James McCrae, Karan Singh, Aaron Hertzmann ACM Transactions on Graphics, 2009 [Project]

PhD Dissertation

Planar Section Representations of 3D Shape (Alain Fournier award, 2014) James McCrae, Karan Singh [PDF]

Master's Thesis

Sketch-Based Path Design James McCrae, Karan Singh [PDF]

Graduate Course Projects

	ServiceSeeker Toronto CSC2125, Greg Wilson [Project]
	Using Salient Lenses for Adaptive Image Display CSC2228, Eyal de Lara [Project]
	Master Rai and Student Jin CSC2529, Karan Singh [Project]
	Contour Chaining for Stroke Stylization CSC2521, Aaron Hertzmann [Project]
	Painterly Rendering for Animation CSC2521, Aaron Hertzmann [Project]
	Impressionist Painter CSC2521, Aaron Hertzmann [Project]

Undergraduate Course Projects

Vehicular Signal Acquisition and Processing CSC492, Arnold Rosenbloom (with Bryan Stuurman) [Project]

Other Projects

	Janus VR James McCrae, Karan Singh [Project]
	FlatFab James McCrae, Karan Singh, Chris De Paoli [Project]
	TheRealFishTracker James McCrae, Chantal Timms, Robert Gerlai [Project]
	Using a Touch Probe to Acquire Muscle Fibre Data Anne Agur, Azam Khan, Karan Singh [Project]

Program Committee Member

• Shape Modeling International (2014)
• Symposium on Applied Perception (2014, 2015)

Technical Paper Reviewer

• Computer-Aided Design (2015)
• Computer Graphics Forum (2014)
• Eurographics (2013)
• Graphics Interface (2014, 2015)
• International Journal of Computational Geometry & Applications (2013)
• Multimedia Tools and Applications (2012)
• Pacific Graphics (2013)
• Shape Modeling International (2014)
• SIGCHI (2012, 2014, 2015)
• SIGGRAPH (2013, 2014, 2015)
• SIGGRAPH Asia (2011, 2012, 2014)
• Symposium on Applied Perception (2014, 2015)
• Transactions on Applied Perception (2015)
• Transactions on Graphics (2014, 2015, 2016)
• Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (2012, 2013, 2014)
• User Interface Software and Technology (2012, 2015)

Academic Activity

• Research In Action Showcase (2012, 2015)

Academic Employment

• Research Contractor - Topix (Spring 2012)
• Research Intern - Autodesk Research (Summer 2008 - Spring 2011)
• Research Student - Barzda Group, Dept. of Chemical and Physical Sciences, UTM (Summer 2005 - Spring 2006)
• Teacher's Assistant - Introduction to Visual Computing (Winter 2005)
• Teacher's Assistant - Numerical Algebra and Optimization (Fall 2004)
• Teacher's Assistant - Introduction to Computer Programming (Winter 2004)

Awards

• University of Toronto Inventor of the Year Award (2015)
• Alain Fournier Award for best Canadian Computer Graphics Dissertation (2014)
• Robert E. Lansdale / Okino Computer Graphics Graduate Fellowship (2012)

Press

• The Internet's Still Just Getting Started, After Twenty Years (2014)
• Building The Metaverse: 2014 Technology Exchange (2014)
• Don't Click That Link - Walk Through That Door! (2014)
• What If Web Browsing Were Like A Virtual Reality Videogame? (2014)
• Try a different way to design and fabricate 3D objects with FlatFab software (2014)

Patents

• Method and System for Linking a First Virtual Reality (VR) Immersive Space with a Second VR Immersive Space
  Karan Singh, James McCrae
  (US Patent filed 2017, granted 2019).
  
• Methods and Systems for Estimating Three-Dimensional Information from Two-Dimensional Concept Drawings
  Adrien Bousseau, Will Chang, Alla Sheffer, Karan Singh, Baoxuan Xu, James McCrae
  (European Patent filed 2015, granted 2016).
  (US Patent filed 2015, granted 2017).
  
• System and Method for Interactive 3D Modelling of Surgical Implants
  Richard Hurley, Rinat Abdrashitov, Karan Singh, Ravin Balakrishnan, James McCrae
  (US Patent filed 2015, granted 2015).
• System and Method for Generating Planar Section 3D Shape Representations
  James McCrae, Karan Singh
  (US Patent filed 2014, granted 2019).
• Multiscale Three-Dimensional Navigation
  James McCrae, Igor Mordatch, Michael Glueck, Azam Khan
  (US Patent filed 2009, granted 2014).

Other Stuff

• DGP T-shirt submissions
• Useful Linux terminal commands
• Quick Maya+Mental Ray instructions for doing ambient occlusion renderings