Jefferson Y. "Jeff" Han (born 1975) is a computer scientist who worked for

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

's (NYU)

Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences The Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (commonly known as Courant or CIMS) is the mathematics research school of New York University (NYU). Founded in 1935, it is named after Richard Courant, one of the founders of the Courant Institute ...

until 2006. He is one of the main developers of " multi-touch sensing", which, unlike older

touch-screen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of electronic visual display, display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically l ...

interfaces, is able to recognize multiple points of contact. Han also works on other projects in the fields of

autonomous robot An autonomous robot is a robot that acts without recourse to human control. Historic examples include space probes. Modern examples include self-driving Robotic vacuum cleaner, vacuums and Self-driving car, cars. Industrial robot, Industrial robot ...

navigation,

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution motion (physics), movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in Military science, military, entertainment, sports ...

real-time computer graphics Real-time computer graphics or real-time rendering is the sub-field of computer graphics focused on producing and analyzing images in real time. The term can refer to anything from rendering an application's graphical user interface ( GUI) to ...

, and human-computer interaction.

Career

He presented his multi-touch sensing work in February 2006 at the TED (

Technology Entertainment Design TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

) Conference in Monterey, California. TED released the video online six months later and it spread quickly on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. Han founded a company called

Perceptive Pixel Perceptive Pixel was a developer and producer of multi-touch interfaces. It was purchased by Microsoft in 2012. Its technology is now used in fields including broadcast, defense, geo-intelligence, energy exploration, industrial design and medica ...

to develop his touch screen technology further, and he has already shipped touch screens to parts of the military.Can't Touch This
Fast Company, February 2007 Han's technology has been featured most notably as the " Magic Wall" on

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

's Election Center coverage. Han's company was acquired by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

in 2012, where he became Partner General Manager of Perceptive Pixel (later

Surface Hub The Surface Hub is a brand of interactive whiteboard developed and marketed by Microsoft, as part of the Microsoft Surface family. The Surface Hub is a wall-mounted or roller-stand-mounted device with either a 55-inch (140 cm) 1080p or an 8 ...

). Han left Microsoft in late 2015, shortly before Surface Hub's launch.

Personal life

He is the son of middle-class Korean immigrants who emigrated to the United States in the 1970s.

Education

Han graduated from

The Dalton School The Dalton School, originally the Children's University School, is a private, coeducational college preparatory school in New York City and a member of both the Ivy Preparatory School League and the New York Interschool. The school is located ...

in New York in 1993 and studied

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

and

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

for three years at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

before leaving to join a start-up company to commercialize the

CU-SeeMe CU-SeeMe is an Internet videoconferencing client. CU-SeeMe can make point to point video calls without a server or make multi-point calls through server software first called a "reflector" and later called a "conference server" or Multipoint Co ...

video-conferencing software that he helped develop while an undergraduate at Cornell.

Honors

Han was named to ''Time'' magazine's 2008 listing of the "100 Most Influential People in The World".

References

External links