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We found Shun at Columbia University, where he's a master's student of computer science in the vision and graphics track.

Shun has worked on a lot of interesting projects, but what we thought was especially cool was his work with Professor Aoki at Tohoku University in Japan. There he designed a system using a projector and stereo camera that compensates for the photometric characteristics of a projected surface. What that means is that using what Shun's lab created you can use a projector with a non-white and non-uniform surface, like a brick wall, and still have it look good! Here's an example:

From left to right are the display surface, the original image, the image projected onto the display surface without compensation, the compensated image, and the compensated image projected onto the display surface.

When he's not working on hard computer vision problems, you can probably find Shun taking long walks around the city to clear his mind.

Shun really impressed us during the interview with his quick and creative responses to our tough algorithm question. He was even prepared with his old research paper when we asked about interesting projects that he had worked on. We are thrilled to work with him this summer.

A lot has changed in the last few months. We want to mention that Adam Herscher left in early January to pursue other opportunities. We wish him the best. More news coming soon.

After months of developing in our top secret facility on Beaver Island, we are nearly ready to enter the next phase. On February 1st, we will be moving to New York City!

We are excited to be moving to a place with millions of people from all walks of life, each carving out a unique story throughout the city. In this myriad of crossing paths, we hope to find inspiration, and look forward to bringing others on-board in the city that never sleeps.

You're probably wondering what this has to do with a Spaniard and two nuns.

The story begins with an apartment search. If you've lived in New York City, then you know how crazy the apartment hunting process is, and ours was no exception. The search led us all around Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. We checked out the up and coming Prospect Heights, ate delicious island food in Crown Heights, got stood up in Queens, roamed the ruins of industry in Williamsburg, avoided the clutches of a broker in Astoria, and finally found a place in Washington Heights.

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When we went to see the place in Washington Heights, we were greeted by a talkative Spaniard named Juan. He is from the Basque area of Spain and is a very kind, yet complicated man. We learned about his time in Manhattan, his favorite workout spots, the occasionally loud neighbors, and his entire family's travel itinerary for the next 60 days. The place was beautiful, and after drinking some juice with him we agreed to meet the next day if we were still interested.

After seeing some more places we realized that Juan's apartment was the best and we went to Chelsea to meet him. We met in a McDonald's (one of the few places open on January 1st) and started going over some details. Then Juan suggested that we go to a place to see his friends so that we would all "feel more comfortable."

We walked over to a small building and knocked on the door and we were greeted by Mother Teresa-style nun, right down to the age, skin tone and texture, lively eyes, and tolerant yet mischievous smile. She ushered us into a small meeting room which had a large painting of Jesus and as we sat down to talk some more nuns joined us. The nuns asked us questions and helped us with copies and office supplies as we settled a minor dispute on rent terms, until Juan agreed, "it's good. good for you, good for me."

As we sat there, handwriting the final details of our agreement on convent letterhead, I was struck by the absurdity of the situation. Here we were in Chelsea, the Castro of New York City, making a deal for a sublet with a Basque Spaniard in the presence of South American nuns under the watchful eyes of a large portrait of Jesus.