Towards Next Generation 3D Teleconferencing Systems
C. Kuster, N. Ranieri, Agustina, H. Zimmer, J.C. Bazin, C. Sun, T. Popa, M. GrossProceedings of 3DTV-CON (Zurich, Switzerland, October 15-17, 2012), pp. 1-4
Abstract
Teleconferencing is becoming more and more important and popular in today’s society and is mostly accomplished using 2D video conferencing systems. However, we believe there is a lot of room for improving the communication experience: one crucial aspect is to add 3D information, but also freeing the user from sitting in front of a computer. With these improvements, we aim at eventually creating a fully immersive 3D telepresence system that might improve the way we communicate over long distances. In this paper we review and analyze existing technology to achieve this goal and present a proof-of-concept, but fully functional prototype.
Overview
In our globalized world, people want to communicate with persons far away. Consequently, advanced communication and remote collaboration are a central pillar of our modern society, affecting both our private and work life. Classical means of remote communication are telephones and more recently video conferencing systems like Skype. While video conferencing enhanced the communication experience by adding visual information, it still suffers from a number of shortcomings. We aim to develop a communication system that seamlessly integrates the remote person in the environment of the other participants, resulting in a fully immersive 3D telepresence experience. To achieve this, we envision a mobile robot platform with a transparent auto-stereoscopic display and a 3D capture device.
