You may not know who Dr. Andrew Fitzgibbon is, but if you’ve watched a TV show or movie in the last two decades, you’ve probably seen some of his work. An expert in 3D computer vision and graphics, and head of the new All Data AI group at Microsoft Research Cambridge, Dr. Fitzgibbon was instrumental in the development of Boujou, an Emmy Award-winning 3D camera tracker that lets filmmakers place virtual props, like the floating candles in Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, into live-action footage. But that was just his warm-up act.

On today’s podcast, Dr. Fitzgibbon tells us what he’s been working on since the Emmys in 2002, including body- and hand-tracking for powerhouse Microsoft technologies like Kinect for Xbox 360 and HoloLens, explains how research on dolphins helped build mathematical models for the human hand, and reminds us, once again, that the “secret sauce” to most innovation is often just good, old-fashioned hard work.