Resonai Team Spotlight: Dana Shamir, Software Developer

The field of augmented reality provides ample opportunities for a large spectrum of today’s software developers, who come to Resonai from a wide variety of backgrounds. A pioneering spirit excites and unites our developers, including Dana Shamir, who has worked with Resonai throughout her university studies.

We recently sat down with Dana to gain her perspective on AR and the vital work she contributes.

Interested in joining the Resonai team?

Check out our open positions and apply today.

What We Learned:

• Augmented reality is multi-disciplinary. Creating AR algorithms for the most straightforward process draws on multiple knowledge fields, from computer science to mathematics.

• Curiosity drives performance. Resonai’s work culture prioritizes the voices of its team and directs them to tackle projects that interest them.
• Everything is new again. The thrill of AR is being a technology pioneer— you’re among the first people creating solutions no one has attempted before.

How did you get started with Resonai?

I was looking for something grounded in mathematics and computer science, both of which I’m studying at Tel Aviv University. I published my CV with those parameters, and Resonai reached out, explaining they specialize in computer vision and AR. That seemed fascinating because it offered a great combination of software development experiences.

Right now, I’m in a student position at Resonai while completing my degrees. During the semester, I work two days a week and switch to full-time hours for the break. I am very busy, but that’s okay because I am doing interesting things, and I love the work we’re doing.

What about your role, and computer vision specifically, requires a solid understanding of mathematics?

One thing we do that’s very important in AR is called registration. When someone uses our application, they see the camera view and try to access AR experiences relevant to their location. We have a live, digital twin model of the building, and in order to provide the AR experience, we need to know where the user is in this model. For example, if you open Vera Concierge, Vera needs to determine where you are in the building to provide accurate directions. And it needs to be precise, or the experience won’t work — we need XYZ coordinates of your smartphone and the orientation of your smartphone camera.

Registration is the process that calculates this location. It takes your smartphone camera image and uses computer vision algorithms to determine your location in the building model. In order to make this process more efficient, Vera also analyzes contextual data, such as connected Wifi access points, that narrow your position to a few rooms. Vera’s algorithms calculate the exact values that determine your position and orientation, and the experience begins.

This process isn’t easy, but we do it quite well. These robust algorithms help us fix a position quickly and efficiently.

What kind of languages or programming environments are you working in each day?

I use a variety of languages depending on what I’m working on that day! In the backend, I spend most of my time in Python and C++. When I’m developing one of the client applications — such as Resonai’s mobile apps — the foundation is usually Swift or Java.

What’s it like working at Resonai? How do you feel about the work culture?

At Resonai, they make sure everyone’s doing something they enjoy. On my first day, they asked, “What do you want to do here? What do you want to work on?”, so I started speaking up about what I liked. It’s very flexible and creates opportunities to learn about topics that interest me. I’m learning many new things at Resonai!

We’re a close-knit team. So over time, you can really get involved in the AR process from start to finish. You’ll shift to different projects that interest you or partner with other team members to complete a task. And because the team is small and everyone’s engaged with their work, there’s a lot of positive collaboration. Everyone is a joy to work with.

What excites you about computer vision and AR?

At Resonai, we’re making something very new. There are so many challenges each day, and our team is among the first to try and solve them — sometimes the very first! When something is complicated, almost every person in Resonai puts their heads together to figure it out. We’re pioneers of new technology and have to figure it out for ourselves. That’s very exciting!

Thanks so much, Dana, for talking to us about your experience!

Are you interested in joining the Resonai team? Check out our open positions and apply today.