About Me
I currently serve as the CTO and co-founder of AKASA, where we're working on healthcare automation solutions. Previously, I worked on Terminal.com (acquired in 2017) and Numovis (acquired by Google in 2011).
At Google, I was a Research Scientist from 2011 to 2014, focusing on projects in computer vision and machine learning.
I received my PhD from the Computer Science department at Stanford University, along with my MS in Computer Science and BS in Physics in 2007.
I co-created Pro HDR, which became the #1 photography app on the iOS App Store. The app helps users automatically capture high dynamic range photos that more closely match what the human eye sees.
My interests include machine learning, computer vision, and finding ways to use technology to solve meaningful problems.
Professional Experience
CTO & Co-founder at AKASA
2018 - Present
Leading technology development for healthcare automation solutions using machine learning and AI.
Founder & CEO at Terminal.com
2014 - 2017
Founded and led Terminal.com until its successful acquisition in 2017.
Research Scientist at Google
Feb 2011 - Jan 2014
Conducted advanced research in machine learning and computer vision following the acquisition of Numovis.
Founder at Numovis
During PhD
Founded Numovis during my PhD studies, which was later acquired by Google in 2011.
PhD Graduate, Computer Science
Stanford University
Focused on probabilistic inference, machine learning, and computer vision.
Research Interests
My research interests lie in the intersection of probabilistic inference, machine learning and computer vision. I'm very excited by depth sensors that make it possible to capture full frames of color as well as range (RGBZ) measurements at 30fps (e.g., Microsoft Kinect). My own research centers around formulating new models for RGBZ data and using them to solve important perceptual problems such as tracking gestures, motion of joints, and activities.
Publications
PhD Thesis: Real-Time Human Pose Tracking from Range Data
Varun Ganapathi Stanford University, 2012.
Real Time Human Pose Tracking from Range Data
Varun Ganapathi, Christian Plagemann, Daphne Koller and Sebastian Thrun ECCV 2012.
Real Time Motion Capture Using a Single Time-Of-Flight Camera
Varun Ganapathi, Christian Plagemann, Daphne Koller and Sebastian Thrun CVPR 2010.
Real Time Identification and Localization of Body Parts from Depth Images
Christian Plagemann, Varun Ganapathi, Daphne Koller and Sebastian Thrun ICRA 2010.
Constrained Approximate Maximum Entropy Learning
Varun Ganapathi, David Vickrey, John Duchi and Daphne Koller UAI 2008.
Efficient Structure Learning of Markov Networks using L1-Regularization
Su-In Lee, Varun Ganapathi and Daphne Koller NIPS 2006.
Learning vehicular dynamics, with application to modeling helicopters
Pieter Abbeel, Varun Ganapathi and Andrew Y. Ng. NIPS 2005.
Inverted autonomous helicopter flight via reinforcement learning
Andrew Y. Ng, Adam Coates, Mark Diel, Varun Ganapathi, Jamie Schulte, Ben Tse, Eric Berger and Eric Liang. In International Symposium on Experimental Robotics, 2004.
Hobbies
Autonomous Helicopter Flight
The video above demonstrates inverted autonomous helicopter flight, a project I worked on during my time at Stanford.
Photography
Pro HDR is an app that I co-authored. The app has sold more than a million copies and allows you to automatically take high dynamic range (HDR) photos with a single tap. HDR is an interesting technique often used by professionals that can result in breathtaking photographs that can be qualitatively more similar to what the human eye sees.
Quotes
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat"