I’ve known Eric Cheng since high school, when we were both into BBS’ing. We went to Stanford together and graduated into long careers in technology. Whereas I’ve stayed mostly grounded in the more mundane areas of tech, Eric has been operating at the bleeding edge. Whether it’s his amazing underwater photography, light field explorations, drone photography, or immersive environments, if you’re just starting to hear about these things in the news, chances are he’s been doing them for years.
Recently, the famous Randy’s Donuts from Southern California opened a location along Homestead Road in Santa Clara. It’s across the street from the equally famous — at least in the Bay Area — Stan’s Donuts. Since Randy’s opened, there’s been tons of media coverage and social media posts pitting the two donut shops against each other.
I’m of the mind that having more donut options is a good thing, even though I’m firmly in the Stan’s Donuts camp. Their glazed donuts are like eating pillows of sugary goodness. But Stan’s doesn’t have a mascot quite as prominent as the giant Randy’s Donut that recently appeared across the street.
Eric has been exploring the “fast” creation of interactive 3D Gaussian splats. f you’re not familiar with them, Gaussian splats are a way of capturing a real-world scene and turning it into a 3D environment that you can move around and explore.
He showed me a project he’s been working on that lets him quickly create these immersive environments using just a few GoPros and some custom software he’s written. I was happy to be his guinea pig!
Click to enter the immersive environment and see me standing in front of the iconic Randy’s Donut sign. I’ll do another one if Stan’s installs a huge Stan’s Donut mascot outside their shop on Homestead Road in Santa Clara!
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