Jeremy Cooperstock
Jeremy Cooperstock is an associate professor in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, a member of the Centre for Intelligent Machines, and a founding member of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology at McGill University. He received an M.Sc. in Computer Sciencee in 1992 and a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1996 from the University of Toronto.
Cooperstock’s research interests focus on augmenting technology to make complex systems more usable and applying computer mediation to facilitate human communication. His PhD thesis investigated the use of computer control over a state of the art videoconference environment, resulting in a reactive room that responds to the activity of users.
Following his doctoral studies, Cooperstock spent a year as a visiting researcher at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Tokyo, Japan, where he developed a prototype VCR interface that responds to speech and pointing commands, so natural that "even your mother can use it." He has also conducted research with IBM at the Haifa Research Center, Israel, and the T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.
In 1997, Cooperstock joined the faculty at McGill, where his accomplishments include the Intelligent Classroom and an automated speech-based virtual secretary. In 1999, he led the software development for the world’s first demonstration of Dolby Digital 5.1 multi-channel audio streaming over the Internet. In 2000, he followed this with reliable 12-channel, high-resolution audio streaming from Montreal to the AES 109th convention in Los Angeles, where it was mixed live as a demonstration of the "recording studio that spans a continent."
Most recently, Cooperstock has been leading the technical development of McGill’s ultra-videoconferencing system, as used by maestro Pinchas Zuckerman for high-fidelity and low-latency distance violin teaching as well as a lower bandwidth system for DV transport used for remote sign-language interpration for medical applications. He is also developing the Shared Reality Environment, a space that provides distributed individuals the experience of being in the same room at the same time.
Cooperstock’s work has been recognized with the ITRC (now CITO) award for Increasing Awareness in Leading Edge Technology and a Distinction Award from the Audio Engineering Society. His research has been been featured in various television programs and newspaper articles.
