Intern, Neural Representations for Haptic Data Encoding and Manipulation

About InterDigital

InterDigital is a global research and development company focused primarily on wireless, video, artificial intelligence (“AI”), and related technologies. We design and develop foundational technologies that enable connected, immersive experiences in a broad range of communications and entertainment products and services. We license our innovations worldwide to companies providing such products and services, including makers of wireless communications devices, consumer electronics, IoT devices, cars and other motor vehicles, and providers of cloud-based services such as video streaming. As a leader in wireless technology, our engineers have designed and developed a wide range of innovations that are used in wireless products and networks, from the earliest digital cellular systems to 5G and today’s most advanced Wi-Fi technologies. We are also a leader in video processing and video encoding/decoding technology, with a significant AI research effort that intersects with both wireless and video technologies.

Founded in 1972, InterDigital is listed on Nasdaq.

InterDigital is a registered trademark of InterDigital, Inc.

For more information, visit: www.interdigital.com.

Summary

This internship will explore neural-network-based representations for the encoding, representation, generation, and manipulation of haptic data. It will build on previous work on Implicit Neural Representations (INRs) for haptics and on probabilistic haptic rendering, with the objective of investigating learned representations that support both compact encoding and controllable transformation of haptic effects.

The work will compare architectures such as autoencoders, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), and INRs for sample-based and/or parametric haptic data. Beyond reconstruction, the intern will investigate selected manipulation and generation tasks relevant to haptic authoring, including filtering, interpolation, completion/inpainting, temporal extension, and real-time procedural generation. Candidate methods will be assessed in terms of reconstruction quality, controllability, generalization, and computational cost.

The internship may build on recent internal work on haptic effect analysis and temporal extension to explore data-driven approaches for generating missing or extended haptic content. Target use cases may include gaming and haptic authoring tools. The work may lead to prototype software, internal demonstrators, and potentially publication and/or patent contributions.

Responsibilities

The intern will join the haptics research team within the New Media Codec group at InterDigital (Rennes). The work will consist in:

• Studying the state of the art on neural representations and generative models for haptic and temporal signals, including autoencoders, GANs, and INRs

• Designing and implementing neural representations for encoding, reconstruction, and controllable manipulation of sample-based and/or parametric haptic effects

• Exploring selected authoring and generation tasks such as filtering, interpolation, inpainting/completion, temporal extension, and real-time procedural generation

• Evaluating the proposed methods and developing demonstrators for haptic authoring or gaming, with potential contributions to publications and patents

Qualifications

• Master’s student (or 4th year engineering school) in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Signal Processing, Robotics, or related field

• Strong Python programming skills and experience with PyTorch or TensorFlow

• Good knowledge of neural networks, representation learning, and signal processing

Nice to have:

• Experience with autoencoders, GANs, INRs, or generative models for temporal data

• Knowledge of haptics, audio, time-series processing, or interactive systems

• Experience with C++, real-time systems, or game engines

Keywords

Haptics, Neural Networks, Generative Models, Autoencoders, GANs, INR, Representation Learning, Procedural Generation

Expected Outcomes

Prototype software, demos, potentially publications and patents

Location

Cesson-Sévigné, France

InterDigital is an equal employment opportunity employer. InterDigital will not engage in or tolerate unlawful discrimination with regard to any employment decision, policy or practice based on a person’s sex, gender, pregnancy (including childbirth, breastfeeding and related medical conditions), age, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, military status, veteran status, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other factor protected by applicable federal, state or local  law. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, recruiting, hiring, compensation, benefits, training, assignments, evaluations, coaching, promotion, discipline, discharge and layoff.