Mohamed Suhail Mohamed Yousuf Sait
Senior Software Engineer, Google · M.S. in Visualization, Texas A&M University
My research investigates how humans perceive, navigate, and interact with 3D spatial environments—bridging foundational studies in virtual reality perception and passive haptics with planet-scale augmented reality navigation and grounded multimodal AI.
Quantified psychophysical thresholds for remapped hand reach, passive haptics, and head rotation in VR, alongside collaborative visual analytics and tethered aerial robotics.
Translated passive-haptic research into FirstSimVR with the Raleigh Fire Department, combining tracked physical controls and VR to evaluate next-generation emergency interfaces.
Invented multi-accuracy AR orientation and 3D street-mesh annotations for Google Maps Live View, and contributed to camera-based spatial search and multimodal AI for Lens in Maps.
Patents
Google Maps Live View & GeoARGeographic Augmented Reality Design for Low Accuracy Scenarios ↗
Mohamed Suhail Mohamed Yousuf Sait, Andre Le, Juan David Hincapie, Mirko Ranieri, Marek Gorecki, Wenli Zhao, Tony Shih, Bo Zhang, Alan Sheridan, Matt Seegmiller.
Multi-accuracy state AR architecture that renders orientation-guided AR signals using coarse sensor pose prior to full 6-DoF visual positioning (VPS) lock, eliminating blank-screen wait states during pedestrian navigation.
Augmented Reality Street Annotations ↗
Juan David Hincapie, Mohamed Suhail Mohamed Yousuf Sait, Marek Gorecki, Andre Le, Michael Humphrey, Devin Nickoloff, Mirko Ranieri, Loran Briggs, Yan Wang, Carlos David Correa Ocampo, Wenli Zhao.
Distance-zoned 3D street-mesh annotation algorithms that orient typography upright relative to terrain slope and filter intersection clutter in real-time first-person camera views.
Peer-Reviewed Publications & Thesis
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[J2] Information Visualization Journal · 2022 · DOI: 10.1177/14738716211032653 ↗ · Grant: NSF #1565725 & DARPA XAI ↓ ·StoryFacets: A Design Study on Storytelling with Visualizations for Collaborative Data AnalysisDeokgun Park, Mohamed Suhail, Minsheng Zheng, Cody Dunne, Eric D. Ragan, and Niklas Elmqvist. Information Visualization, 21(1), pp. 3–16, SAGE, 2022. (Supported by NSF #1565725 & DARPA XAI #N66001-17-2-4032).
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[C7] IEEE VR · 2019 · DOI: 10.1109/VR.2019.8798280 ↗ · Grant: NIST #70NANB18H146 ↓ · NIST FirstSimVR Project Page ↗ ·Simulating a Futuristic Fire Pump Panel in Virtual RealityMohamed Suhail, Scott Gainer, Jason Haskins, Suraj Eadara, Blake Boyd, Charles Laird, Will Huse, and Jason Jerald. 2019 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR), pp. 1415–1416, 2019. (Supported by NIST PSIAP-UI Award #70NANB18H146 in partnership with the Raleigh Fire Department; featured by NIST.gov ↗).
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[C6] IEEE/RSJ IROS · 2018 · DOI: 10.1109/IROS.2018.8594461 ↗ · Grant: NSF NRI #1637955 ↓ · WIRED Feature ↗ · NYT × Texas A&M ↗ · NSF Science Nation ↗ · TAMU Engineering News ↗ ·Motion Planning for a UAV with a Straight or Kinked TetherXuesu Xiao, Jan Dufek, Mohamed Suhail, and Robin Murphy. 2018 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 8486–8492, 2018. (Supported by NSF NRI Award #1637955; project featured in WIRED ↗, The New York Times (Paid Post) ↗, NSF Science Nation ↗, & TAMU News ↗).
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[T1] Master's Thesis · May 2018 · Texas A&M University ·A Study on Effective Reuse of a Physical Prop Using Passive and Active Haptics in Virtual RealityMohamed Suhail Mohamed Yousuf Sait. Master of Science Thesis, Department of Visualization, Texas A&M University, May 2018. Committee: Dr. Eric D. Ragan (Chair), Dr. Francis Quek, Dr. Bruce Gooch.
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Evaluating Remapped Physical Reach for Hand Interactions with Passive Haptics in Virtual RealityDustin T. Han, Mohamed Suhail, and Eric D. Ragan. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG), Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 1467–1476, April 2018.
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Physical Hand Interaction for Controlling Multiple Virtual Objects in Virtual RealityMohamed Suhail Mohamed Yousuf Sait, Shyam Prathish Sargunam, Dustin T. Han, and Eric D. Ragan. Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Interactive and Spatial Computing (IWISC 2018), ACM, pp. 64–74, 2018. (Oral paper presentation highlighted by UT Dallas Department of Computer Science ↗).
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Facilitating Context Switching Through Tangible ArtifactsOsazuwa Okundaye, Francis Quek, Shyam Prathish Sargunam, Mohamed Suhail, and Ranjita Das. Proceedings of the 2017 ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Extended Abstracts), pp. 1939–1946, 2017.
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Guided Head Rotation and Amplified Head Rotation: Evaluating Semi-Natural Travel and Viewing Techniques in Virtual RealityShyam Prathish Sargunam, Kasra Rahimi Moghadam, Mohamed Suhail, and Eric D. Ragan. 2017 IEEE Virtual Reality (VR), pp. 19–28, Los Angeles, CA, 2017.
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Redirected Reach in Virtual Reality: Enabling Natural Hand Interaction at Multiple Virtual Locations with Passive HapticsMohamed Suhail, Shyam Prathish Sargunam, Dustin T. Han, and Eric D. Ragan. 2017 IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (3DUI), pp. 245–246, 2017.
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Coordinating Attention and Cooperation in Multi-User Virtual Reality NarrativesCullen Brown, Ghanshyam Bhutra, Mohamed Suhail, Qinghong Xu, and Eric D. Ragan. 2017 IEEE Virtual Reality (VR), pp. 377–378, 2017.
Federally Funded Research Projects
NIST · NSF · DARPAU.S. Dept. of Commerce / National Institute of Standards and Technology (PSCR Division), in partnership with the Raleigh Fire Department. Augmented VR simulations with tracked physical passive-haptic controls for emergency response training.
National Science Foundation & Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Explainable AI Program). Multi-view provenance architecture linking exploratory data-flow graphs, dashboards, and interactive narratives.
National Science Foundation (National Robotics Initiative) at the Texas A&M Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue (CRASAR). Investigated motion planning and spatial modeling for marsupial tethered UAV/UGV teams operating in cluttered disaster environments.
Honors & International Awards
Google Maps Live View / GeoAROfficial Product Announcements
Google Official Blog (The Keyword)Announced "Lens built with Gemini" in Google Maps, enabling users to point their camera at nearby POIs and ask conversational multimodal questions ("What is this place and why is it popular?") grounded in real-world place data.
Official global rollout announcement of Lens in Maps (formerly Search with Live View) across 50+ new cities, combining AI and augmented reality to identify nearby POIs and orient users in real time.
Announced the global expansion of Search with Live View (outdoor AR Point-of-Interest discovery) and the rollout of Indoor Live View to 1,000+ international airports, train stations, and shopping centers.
Announced Live View landmark orientation across 25 global cities, multi-modal transit AR walking directions, Location Sharing AR, and elevation-aware global localization.
Official global launch announcement expanding Google Maps Live View augmented reality walking directions across Android (ARCore) and iOS (ARKit) devices worldwide.
Independent Media, Press & Government Features
Ordered by Publication Date (Newest First)Profiled Google Maps' visual AI Point-of-Interest discovery, 3D street-name ground overlays, and camera-based spatial search (Search with Live View / Lens in Maps).
In-depth coverage of how Google Maps Live View's visual positioning, 3D street-level orientation, and global AR infrastructure power world-scale spatial computing.
Profiled Live View's expansion into complex indoor transit stations, malls, and international airports.
Design and spatial interface analysis of Live View's 3D directional overlays and street-space typography in urban environments.
Highlighted how Live View's quick-orientation interaction model lets pedestrians rapidly orient themselves in unfamiliar intersections.
Official federal program profile highlighting passive-haptic VR fire-pump panel simulation and evaluation with the Raleigh Fire Department.
Featured our oral presentation on Physical Hand Interaction for Controlling Multiple Virtual Objects in Virtual Reality.
Featured Texas A&M CRASAR's AI-assisted marsupial and tethered aerial/marine disaster-response robotics research.
National broadcast and Texas A&M College of Engineering features on our NSF-funded tethered aerial/ground and marine robotic visual assistance research at CRASAR.
Featured Texas A&M CRASAR's marsupial tethered drone and ground/marine robot research for navigating disaster zones.
Academic Service & Peer Review
3 Completed Reviews Across 2 Venues| Year | Venue / Journal | Reviewed Manuscript / Submission | Editorial Authority & Publisher |
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| 2022 | Int. Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IJHCS) | IJHCS-D-22-00117 · "Asymmetric 2D/3D Tangible Input: Precise Object Manipulation in Virtual Reality" | Elsevier Flagship HCI Journal · Associate Editor Prof. Joseph J. LaViola Jr. |
| 2018 | ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI 2018) | Submission #1064 · Full Conference Paper Review (1 of 2) | ACM SIGGRAPH / SIGCHI · Associate Chair Prof. Ryan P. McMahan |
| 2018 | ACM Symposium on Spatial User Interaction (SUI 2018) | Submission #1097 · Full Conference Paper Review (2 of 2) | ACM SIGGRAPH / SIGCHI · Associate Chair Prof. Ryan P. McMahan |
Additional Program Committee & Review Invitations: Invited to serve as a peer reviewer for IEEE ISMAR (2023, 2024), Wiley's Journal of Field Robotics (2020), ACM CHI (2019), and IEEE VR (2019).