Research Seminars

Computer Vision for Immersive Teleconferencing
Emanuele Trucco, Heriot-Watt University
26th April, 2002

Presence and immersiveness are the big challenges for future videoconferencing systems. This talk presents VIRTUE, a IST Framework V project aiming to build an innovative, 3-site, immersive teleconferencing prototype. The VIRTUE videoconferencing terminal (see figures enclosed) includes four cameras placed around a 60'' plasma screen and organised in two real-time stereo systems, two dual-Pentium PCs with additional special-purpose boards, and a table (half of which is virtual). Key features of VIRTUE are the use of real, synthesised images of remote speakers (as opposed to texture-mapped models or avatars), viewpoint adaptation via passive head tracking, a specially designed hardware board based on four TriMedia processors, and a solid grounding in human factors analysis. The talk's focus are the computer vision algorithms developed and implemented, especially for stereo and view synthesis. Results illustrating the performance of the VIRTUE algorithms, as well as up-to-date images of the VIRTUE demonstrator, will be shown and commented.