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Interns Making an Impact: Daniel Castro
October 9, 2012
Introduction: Our interns explore new ideas, accelerate the launch of new product features, and are big contributors to Google. Technical interns are embedded in every major engineering team where their impact is unconstrained by titles. They truly “do cool things that matter” and we’re sharing their stories with you now. Today we're featuring Daniel Castro, a computer science student at Georgia Institute of Technology. This summer Daniel worked at our Mountain View headquarters as a Software Engineering Intern. He was also a part of last year’s Engineering Practicum Internship Program. Interested in a technical internship at Google? Applications for
Engineering Practicum
are due October 15th. Our other technical internships are posted at
google.com/students/intern
and we accept applications for those roles on a rolling basis.
What did you work on this summer? What was your internship project
?
The goal of my project was to explore the different methods in which we could display 3D images on the web. This is why devices like the Nintendo 3DS have two cameras that are adjacent to each other. Transitioning from one camera angle to the other then creates the sensation that it is in three dimensions due to the change in perspective. A very similar effect can be created when you close one eye and quickly alternate to your other eye, while focusing on an object. (try winking with your left eye, then your right eye, and repeat this very quickly). I worked on a Chrome extension that would analyze if a website had any 3D images, and then modified how these images were displayed to create a 3D effect when the user hovered over the image.
What are the real-world applications and why is it important?
Over the past few years, various companies have released devices that can now easily capture 3D image pairs. These images are often displayed using specialized hardware that is not available to the consumer. The real world application of this project is to improve the user experience of viewing these images on the web. It is important to note that these images are becoming incredibly easy to obtain now that 3D cameras are integrated into devices that are used every day, like Nintendo 3DS, or the HTC EVO 3D. One of my goals was to help this community view the 3D images they take without the use of the specialized hardware. Often, these images are displayed using a wiggle effect which displays the left and the right image in quick succession in order to create the sensation that it is in 3D. However, this attempt is not smooth, and looks very flashy. It is often difficult to appreciate the three dimensionality without the flashiness, and this is why a lot of work went into analyzing how we could do this smoothly.
In what ways have you been able to innovate at Google? What makes working at Google unique for you?
My project dealt directly with analyzing stereoscopic image formats and the different methods for displaying these images. The unique thing about the project is that it is very exploratory. From Day 1 onward, I got to apply my own ideas and opinions to what I was working on. It wasn’t a cookie cut programming internship. It was an adventure of ideas and discussions that lead to stunningly creative results. I got to work with experts in the field of images and video, and their input was invaluable to the results of my internship.
What do you like most about your internship? Are there personal rewards from the work you do?
It started about 6 months ago, when I got my call from my internship host. My host looked over my resume and knew that I had a passion for images and video, and therefore put me on a project dealing with stereoscopic images. I’ve put so much more into this project because I love it, and that makes all the difference. My biggest personal reward here is knowledge and networking. I learned to be much more comfortable in image analysis and met teams who had a wealth of knowledge to share. I love that it is a project that I can hold dearly and say, I did that, that’s my work.
Overall, how do you feel about your time here at Google, and what do you see yourself doing next?
I’d truly love to stay but the time I spent at Google was invaluable to my professional and personal career. I look forward to graduating from Georgia Tech in the Spring, and continuing to pursue my PhD in Computer Vision in the Fall. If all goes well, I hope to come back to Google for quite a few more internships while I pursue my doctorate.
Do you have any advice for students who are interested in an internship at Google?
This is probably more general advice for Computer Science majors but here it goes. Don’t bet heavily on coding ability as your biggest skill. Programming is only the medium through which you will pursue what truly motivates you. Step one is to find that passion, and step two is to have the motivation to keep at the pursuit of your dreams. It isn’t about knowing each programming language in depth (although more power to you if you do), because alone that gets you nowhere. Inspire yourself to use your abilities to make a difference. And most importantly, make the pursuit of happiness be something on your resume, and not just that Will Smith movie we’ve all watched.
Posted by Jacqueline Pan, University and Intern Programs Specialist
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