Mark Nathan Billinghurst is a computer interface technology researcher. His work focuses on augmented reality (AR) technology. Billinghurst was made a Fellow of the IEEE in 2023.
Billinghurst completed his school education at the New Plymouth Boys' High School.[1] He received Bachelor of Computing and Mathematical Science (first class honors) and Master of Philosophy (Applied Mathematics & Physics) degrees in 1990 and 1992 respectively. Both degrees are from Waikato University.[2] He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington's Human Interface Technology Laboratory in 2002.[2][3] His dissertation was Shared Space: Explorations in Collaborative Augmented Reality. Billinghurst's doctoral advisors were Linda Shapiro and Thomas A. Furness III.[4] For his PhD course, Billinghurst created the Magic Book, a children's book animated through augmented reality produced by a head-mounted display.[2][5] Billinghurst describes the Magic Book as technology "that allows you to overlay computer graphics onto the real world, in real time".[6]
Billinghurst is professor of Human Computer Interaction at the University of South Australia (from 2015),[3][5] professor at the University of Auckland's Bioengineering Institute (from 2018)[3][7][5] and director of the Empathic Computing Laboratory.[2][8][7] He is the founder and formerly the director of the University of Canterbury's HIT Lab NZ for 13 years;[9][10][3] he is now an associate professor at the University of Canterbury.[7][11] In 2001, Billinghurst co-founded ARToolworks and helped to create ARToolKit, an open source AR development platform.[9][10] He is a founder of the SuperVentures AR/VR fund.[3] Billinghurst is part of the New Zealand Government’s Growth and Innovation Advisory Board, being appointed in 2005.[2] Billinghurst's previous work includes jobs with ATR Research Labs in Japan, British Telecom's Advanced Perception Unit, an internship with Hit Lab US,[1] Nokia, Google, Amazon[7] and the MIT Media Laboratory.[11] During his career, Billinghurst has published over 650 research papers; he is one of the most cited AR researchers.[11][7][10]
Billinghurst was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand.[1] He is a member of the Riccarton Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[12]