Alvaro Villegas

Innovating for Human Communications

Passionate Telecom Engineer, married and father of 4 boys, I've dedicated my nearly 30 years of professional life to research and innovation in the field of digital video. I am currently the Head of Extended Reality Lab in Nokia Spain. I love producing impact in society with my work, so my current goal is applying all this video background to what I consider the next Big Step in human communication: immersivity, leveraging the maturity of Mixed Reality (XR) technology. Complementing the virtual worlds of the Metaverse initiatives, my approach comes from a different angle: Real Reality (the Realverse), capturing people and their surrounding at different locations and blending all of them into a shared communication experience in front of our senses. It is a complex and exciting technology challenge with the potential of completely changing the way in which we humans interact, and I am fortunate enough to lead am extraordinary team of brilliant people capable of making it a reality. A new Reality.

Videos

A short video is worth 1k images (and hence 10k words)...

... although I still use words for my talks in different forums

Publications

2024
[1] Alvaro Villegas, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Pablo Perez, Juan Torres, ​The Owl: Virtual Teleportation through XR (Demo), IEEE VR demo
[2] G. Salcedo, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Diego González, Pablo Perez, Alvaro Villegas, Do You XaRaoke?: Immersive Realistic Singing Experience with Embodied Singer, IEEE VR 2024 poster
[3] Diego González, D. Medda, A. Iossifides, P.Chatzimision, A. García-Armada, Alvaro Villegas, Pablo Perez, An eXtended Reality Offloading IP Traffic Dataset and Models, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing
[4] Amaya Jiménez, Baldomero Rodríguez, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Pablo Perez, Alvaro Villegas, Context-Aware Remote User Placement for Immersive 360 Communications, IEEE AIxVR 2024
2023
[5] Diego González, M.J.Lopez Morales, Pablo Perez, A.García Armada, Alvaro Villegas, FikoRE: 5G and Beyond RAN Emulator for Application Level Experimentation and Prototyping, IEEE Networks Magazine
[6] Diego González, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Pablo Perez, Alvaro Villegas, Full Body Video-based Self-Avatars for Mixed Reality: from E2E System to User Study, Virtual Reality Springer
2022
[7] Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Guillermo, Diego González, Pablo Perez, Alvaro Villegas, Real Time Egocentric Object Segmentation for Mixed Reality: THU-READ Labeling and Benchmarking Results, ​IEEE VR Data4XR 2022 Workshop
[8] Diego González, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Pablo Perez, Alvaro Villegas, Bringing Real Body as Self-Avatar into Mixed Reality: A Gamified Volcano Experience, IEEE VR 2022 Poster
[9] Alvaro Villegas, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Ignacio Benito, ​Immersive Telepresence for Education and Training, CHI 2022 Workshop
2021
[10] Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Pablo Perez, Diego González, Alvaro Villegas, Subjective Evaluation of Egocentric Human Segmentation for Mixed Reality, IEEE AI VR 2021
[11] Pablo Perez, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Redouane Kachach, Francisco Pereira, Alvaro Villegas, Ecological Validity through Gamification: an Experiment with a Mixed Reality Escape Room, IEEE AI VR 2021
[12] Redouane Kachach, Sandra Morcuende, Diego González, Pablo Perez, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Francisco Pereira, Alvaro Villegas, The Owl: Immersive Telepresence Communication for Hybrid Conferences, ISMAR 2021
[13] Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, G.Robledo, Diego González, Pablo Perez, Alvaro Villegas, ​Real Time Egocentric Object Segmentation: THU-READ Labeling and Benchmarking Result, ​​CVPRw 2021
[14] Redouane Kachach, Marta Orduña, Jesús Rodríguez, Pablo Perez, Alvaro Villegas, Julián Cabrera, Narciso García, Immersive Telepresence in Remote Education , MMVE 2021
[15] Redouane Kachach, Diego González, Francisco Pereira, Pablo Perez, Ignacio Benito, Jaime Ruiz, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Alvaro Villegas, ​A Multi-Peer, Low Cost Immersive Communication System for Pandemic Times, IEEE VR 2021
2020
[16] Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Pablo Perez, Rubén Tolosana, Redouane Kachach, Alvaro Villegas, Enhanced Self-Perception in Mixed Reality: Egocentric Arm Segmentation and Database with Automatic Labelling, IEEE Access 2020
[17] Alvaro Villegas, Pablo Perez, Redouane Kachach, Francisco Pereira, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Realistic training in VR using physical manipulation​, CVPR Workshop on Computer Vision for Mixed Reality
[18] Andrija Gajic, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Diego González, Marcos Escudero, Alvaro Villegas, ​​Egocentric Human Segmentation for Mixed Reality, ​CVPR Workshop on Egocentric Perception, Interaction and Computing
[19] Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Diego González, Andrija Gajic, Marcos Escudero, Alvaro Villegas, ​Pixel-Wise Labelling of RGB-D THU-READ dataset, CVPR Workshop on Egocentric Perception, Interaction and Computing, AMT proposals
[20] Alvaro Villegas, Pablo Perez, Redouane Kachach, Francisco Pereira, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, DRoom: a gamified demonstration of Real Haptics technology, IEEE VR 2020 demo track
[21] Alvaro Villegas, Pablo Perez, Redouane Kachach, Francisco Pereira, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, ​Realistic training in VR using physical manipulation, IEEE VR 2020 Training XR workshop
[22] Redouane Kachach, Pablo Perez, Alvaro Villegas, Virtual Tour: An Immersive Low Cost Telepresence System, IEEE VR 2020 Workshop on Virtual Conferencing
[23] Sergio Serra, Redouane Kachach, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Alvaro Villegas, Natural User Interfaces for Mixed Reality: Controlling Virtual Objects with your Real Hands, IEEE VR 2020 Poster
[24] Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Ignacio Benito, Pablo Perez, Redouane Kachach, Jaime Ruiz, Alvaro Villegas, Audience Meter: a Use Case of Deploying Machine Learning Algorithms over 5G Networks with MEC, ICCE (Deep Learning and New Platforms)
2019
[25] Alvaro Villegas, Pablo Perez, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Towards a Distributed Reality: a multi-video approach to xR (short paper), MMVE 2019
[26] Pablo Perez, Narciso García, Alvaro Villegas, Subjective Assessment of Adaptive Media Playout for Video Streaming​, International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX)
[27] Pablo Perez, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Redouane Kachach, Jaime Ruiz, Francisco Pereira, Ignacio Benito, Alvaro Villegas, Immersive Gastronomic Experience with Distributed Reality , IEEE International Workshop on Everyday Virtual Reality
2018
[28] Pablo Perez, Nuria Oyaga, Jaime Ruiz, Alvaro Villegas, Towards systematic analysis of cybersickness in high motion omnidirectional video, International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX)
[29] Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Pablo Perez, Redouane Kachach, Jaime Ruiz, Alvaro Villegas, ​Towards Self-Perception in Augmented Virtuality: Hand Segmentation with Fully Convolutional Networks​, EUROGRAPHICS Poster
[30] Pablo Perez, Ester Gonzalez-Sosa, Redouane Kachach, Jaime Ruiz, Alvaro Villegas, A Drink in Mars: an Approach to Distributed Reality, EUROGRAPHICS Poster
[31] Alvaro Villegas, Pablo Perez, Jaime Ruiz, Javier López-Poncela, ​Scala​​ble monitoring of end-to-end delay in live video services​, IEEE International Conference on Consumer Electronics
2012
[32] Alvaro Villegas, Pablo Perez, José María Cubero, Enrique Estalayo, Narciso García, Network assisted content protection architectures for a connected world, Bell Labs Technical Journal
[33] Marcel Mampaey, Alvaro Villegas, A network-centric DRM for online scenarios, Bell Labs Technical Journal
[34] Pablo Perez, Jaime Ruiz, Alvaro Villegas, Karel Van Damme, Christian Van Boven, Joel Dupont, Multi-vendor video headend convergence solution, Bell Labs Technical Journal
1995
[35] Manuel Leandro, Alvaro Villegas, José Manuel Pardo, Efficient Isolated Word Recognition In Spanish Based On Static Modeling, Fourth European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology
1994
[36] Javier Macías-Guarasa, Manuel Leandro, José Colás, Alvaro Villegas, Santiago Aguilera, José Manuel Pardo, On the development of a dictation machine for Spanish: DIVO, ISCLP

Patents

Ideas deserve protection

[1] Personalized Perceptual Video Encoder for Mission-Critical Tasks, EPO ID 21382799.1
[2] Semantic adaptation of live video lag, EPO ID 17382641.3
[3] Content-Aware Client Buffer Reduction For Low Lag Video, EPO ID 16382599.5
[4] Opportunistic Switching Between LTE Unicast And Broadcast Video Service, EPO ID 15/436809
[5] Method and device for transmission of video content, EPO ID 16382229.9
[6] Dynamic Quality Of Experience Improvement In Media Content Streaming, EPO ID 15382340.6
[7] Method And Server For Improving Quality In Adaptive Streaming Delivery Systems, EPO ID 15382342.2
[8] Method and server for the storage of multimedia content and its delivery in adaptive streaming systems, EPO ID 15382073.3
[9] Method And Device For Distributing File Requests In Adaptive Streaming Systems, EPO ID 15382075.8
[10] Method, System And Devices For Multimedia Content Delivery Using Adaptive Streaming, EPO ID 13382068.8
[11] Method, system and devices for multimedia content delivery using adaptive streaming, EPO ID 13382068.8
[12] Method, System and Devices for Multimedia Delivering in Content Delivery Networks, EPO ID 12382223.1
[13] Method, System and Devices for Improved Content Delivery, EPO ID 12382224.9
[14] Method, System And Devices For Content Caching And Delivering In Ip Networks, EPO ID 12382486.4
[15] Method, System and Devices for Improved Adaptive Streaming of Media Content, EPO ID 12382006.0
[16] Content delivering method, EPO ID 11382213.4
[17] Method for authorising, EPO ID 11382180.5
[18] Multimedia Content Broadcast Procedure, EPO ID 10382080.9
[19] Virtual Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) for IPTV, EPO ID 09382017.3
[20] Method And Device For Ensuring Reliability During Transmission Of Television Data In A Television System Based On Internet Protocol, EPO ID 09382001.7
[21] Virtual customer premises equipment, EPO ID 09382017.3
[22] Method and device for authorising access to data, EPO ID 08305647.3
[23] Delivering System of Content on Demand, EPO ID 08382016.7
[24] Intelligent Wrapping Of Video Content To Lighten Downstream Processing Of Video Streams, EPO ID 07291476.5

Contact

Until our XR technology is ready you will have to use this old-fashioned mechanism

My Location

I currently live in Madrid, Spain.
I work in Nokia Spain, also in Madrid.
I also lived and worked in Munich, Germany.
And I love Málaga, the best place to live in Europe.

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