Jinha Lee
Contact
Overview
I am an interaction designer exploring future experiences at the boundary of the physical and digital worlds. I aspire to leverage the power of computation to improve the ways people collaborate, learn, create, and play. My work ranges from augmented reality to interactive fashion products and has been awarded, patented, exhibited at museums, featured in major media, released as mass-market products, and presented at top academic conferences and TED Talks. In my spare time, I travel, draw, photograph nature, and meditate.
Experience
Spatial - Cofounder, President and CPO
Feb 2017 - Present
Building the future of work with immersive computing technologies.
Samsung - Principal Designer & Engineer
March 2015 - Jan 2017
Directed a team of developers and designers creating new experience, interaction mod- els, strategies, and services for multiple products through iterative prototyping. Led the creation of MediaSquare (showcased at CES) - a playful and novel way to experience media in room-scale, multi-user environments. Recently led the joint effort on Dreem, an open-source prototyping and authoring tool for the roomscale visual computing environment unveiled at Samsung Developer Conference.
Samsung - Senior. Engineer
March 2014 - Feb 2015
Designed and patented key interaction behaviours for 2015, 2016 Samsung TV. Led the UX and UI Concept Design and prototyping of 2015 Samsung TV. Established Iterative prototyping processes for UI Design and Development team.
Samsung - Engineer
Aug 2012 - Feb 2014
Conducted research and design of fluid and scalable content browsing experience inculding the award-winning STRIPE project. Concept prototyping of new screen based experience and new input devices.
Microsoft - Research Intern
Jun 2011 - Sep 2011
Designed and developed SpaceTop, a computer that lets you reach inside the screen with your hands and interact with the surface and 3D space. SpaceTop was recognized as one of the first attempts to situate AR in the desktop environment, published to the CHI conference, and invited to present at the TED Stage.
MIT Media Lab - Research Assistant
Sep 2009 - Aug 12
Multiple research projects and inventions including ZeroN, a physical pixel that levitates and moves freely about, allowing users to physically manipulate data in three-dimensional space. Presented at the CHI conference and exhibited at the MIT Museum.
Sony Computer Science Laboratories - Research Intern
Aug 2008 - Sep 2008
Developed a mobile AR application that recognizes buildings on the streets based on the aggregation of their 2D images with a planar object detection algorithm. Advisor: Jun Rekimoto
Education
Master of Sciences in Media Arts and Sciences - MIT Media Lab
Sep 2009 - Jun 2011
Master Thesis: Mid-Air tangible interaction enabled by computer controlled magnetic levitation. Advisor: Hiroshi Ishii
Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences - MIT Media Lab
Sep 2011 - Aug 2012
Put on hold after the first year to serve alternative Korean military service at Samsung Electronics
B.E. in Electronic Engineering - The University of Tokyo
Apr 2005 - Mar 2009
Bachelor Thesis project: Bloxels - Glowing Blocks as Volumetric Pixels, demonstrated at SIGGRAPH Emerging technologies Exhibition.
Selected Awards
World Economic Forum’s Young Gloabl Leader of 2015 List
2015
TED Fellowship
2013
IF Design Awards - SpaceTop, ZeroN, STRIPE
2013 - 2016
Red Dot Award - Bradley Timepiece
2016
Davinci Award - Bradley Timepiece
2014
CES Innovation Award - Samsung Smart TV
2015
London Design Museum’s Design of the year - Bradley
2014
Forbes' 30 under 30 Asia - Consumer Tech
2016
Selected Press
+ extended list of press coverages
2009 - 2016
Selected Talks
Brand Week Istanbul
Nov 2015
+ View Full Talk List
2012 - 2024
Invited Exhibits
Selected Papers
Jinha Lee, Alex Olwal, Hiroshi Ishii, and Cati Boulanger. SpaceTop: Integrating 2D and Spatial 3D Interaction in See-through Desktop Environment. CHI 2013.
2013
Jinha Lee, Rehmi Post, and Hiroshi Ishii. 2011. ZeroN: mid-air tangible interaction enabled by computer controlled magnetic levitation. UIST 11
2011
Jinha Lee, Seungcheon Baek. Elastic Cursor and Elastic Edge: Applying Simulated Resistance to Interface Elements for Seamless Edge-scroll. UIST '15 Demo
2015
Daniel Leithinger, Sean Follmer, Samuel Luescher, Alex Olwal, Akimitsu Hogge, Jinha Lee, and Hiroshi Ishii. SUBLIMATE: State-Changing Virtual and Physical Rendering to Augment Interaction with Shape Displays. CHI 2013
2013
Selected Patents
Skills and Tools
User Experience and Interface Design, Creative Direction, HCI Research, Concept Prototyping, Iterative Software and Hardware Prototyping.
Software: C++, C#, Openframeworks, XNA Processing, Javascript, ThreeJS, Unity
Graphic and UI Design Tool: Adobe Suites, sketch, zeplin, flinto, form.
3D Design: Rhino, Solidworks & Fabrication tools for mock-ups and circuits.
Firmware Dev: PIC microcontroller programming, arduino.