Dr Adrian Dorrington
Position: Former Senior Lecturer, University of Waikato. Currently founder and director Chronoptics. Field: Optics, time-of-flight 3D-cameras
Dr Adrian Dorrington was attracted to studying science because of his interest in electronics and fibre optics, which led him to complete his PhD in optics. His background in electronics meant that he approached problems from a different perspective than other people in his field, with a creative approach when it came to solutions.
Dr Adrian Dorrington in his lab
Dr Adrian Dorrington working in his lab with an experimental time-of-flight camera. Adrian is working to solve the ‘multi-path problem’ within current time-of-flight cameras.
In his PhD, Adrian looked at the use of LiDARs (light detection and ranging), which operate in a similar way to radars but measure the properties of light to find out information about distant targets.
After completing his PhD at the University of Waikato, Adrian continued to work in New Zealand for several years before moving to the NASA Langley Research Centre in the United States, where he was involved in the use of lasers for photogrammetry – a technique used to describe and measure the physical properties of an object in a three-dimensional space. He worked in a team that used this technology to help predict the behaviour of lightweight, inflatable space structures.
After this, Adrian returned to the University of Waikato where he researched time-of-flight range 3D cameras.
3D technology
Dr Adrian Dorrington, a scientist from the University of Waikato, explains the basic concept behind 3D television and film. One system requires the viewer to wear active glasses so that the right image is delivered to the right eye at the right time. Active glasses require a power source to operate the shutter system in the lenses.
It is clear that Adrian has a love for optical physics and research and will no doubt continue to find ways in which physics research can be used to shape new technologies.
In 2014 he left the University of Waikato to focus on the company Chronoptics, which works on improving the quality and capability of time-of-flight 3D cameras.
This article is based on information current in 2012 and updated in 2018.
