An Experiment on Multi-Video Transmission with Multipoint Tiled Display Wall, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2012, nr 1

In order to realize realistic remote communication between multipoint remote places via the Internet, displaying the appearance of remote participants by transmission of a video streaming with the large-sized display system is effective. However, the display of video streaming with sufficient quality is difficult because the specification of a commercial projector and large-sized display equipment is low-resolution. In order to these issues, we focus on the tiled display wall technology which configure effective wide-area screen system with two or more LCD panels and tried to display a high-resolution video streaming on the large-scale display environment. In this paper, we have constructed remote communication environment with tiled display wall in multipoint sites and have conducted experiment in order to study the possibility of realizing realistic remote communication with multi-video streaming. As these results, these video streaming from each site have been shown to display more high-quality than magnified view of video image by a single small camera. Moreover, we have measured the network throughput performance for each transmitted and received video streaming in this environment. From measurement results, the steady throughput performance has been gained at the case of each transmitted and received video streaming

08231 Abstracts Collection -- Virtual Realities

From 1st to 6th June 2008, the Dagstuhl Seminar 08231 ``Virtual Realities\u27\u27 was held in the International Conference and Research Center (IBFI), Schloss Dagstuhl. Virtual Reality (VR) is a multidisciplinary area of research aimed at interactive human-computer mediated simulations of artificial environments. Typical applications include simulation, training, scientific visualization, and entertainment. An important aspect of VR-based systems is the stimulation of the human senses -- typically sight, sound, and touch -- such that a user feels a sense of presence (or immersion) in the virtual environment. Different applications require different levels of presence, with corresponding levels of realism, sensory immersion, and spatiotemporal interactive fidelity. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available

I-Light Symposium 2005 Proceedings

I-Light was made possible by a special appropriation by the State of Indiana. The research described at the I-Light Symposium has been supported by numerous grants from several sources. Any opinions, findings and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the 2005 I-Light Symposium Proceedings are those of the researchers and authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the granting agencies.Indiana University Office of the Vice President for Research and Information Technology, Purdue University Office of the Vice President for Information Technology and CI

Imaging methods for understanding and improving visual training in the geosciences

Experience in the field is a critical educational component of every student studying geology. However, it is typically difficult to ensure that every student gets the necessary experience because of monetary and scheduling limitations. Thus, we proposed to create a virtual field trip based off of an existing 10-day field trip to California taken as part of an undergraduate geology course at the University of Rochester. To assess the effectiveness of this approach, we also proposed to analyze the learning and observation processes of both students and experts during the real and virtual field trips. At sites intended for inclusion in the virtual field trip, we captured gigapixel resolution panoramas by taking hundreds of images using custom built robotic imaging systems. We gathered data to analyze the learning process by fitting each geology student and expert with a portable eye- tracking system that records a video of their eye movements and a video of the scene they are observing. An important component of analyzing the eye-tracking data requires mapping the gaze of each observer into a common reference frame. We have made progress towards developing a software tool that helps automate this procedure by using image feature tracking and registration methods to map the scene video frames from each eye-tracker onto a reference panorama for each site. For the purpose of creating a virtual field trip, we have a large scale semi-immersive display system that consists of four tiled projectors, which have been colorimetrically and photometrically calibrated, and a curved widescreen display surface. We use this system to present the previously captured panoramas, which simulates the experience of visiting the sites in person. In terms of broader geology education and outreach, we have created an interactive website that uses Google Earth as the interface for visually exploring the panoramas captured for each site

Web-based Stereoscopic Collaboration for Medical Visualization

Medizinische Volumenvisualisierung ist ein wertvolles Werkzeug zur Betrachtung von Volumen- daten in der medizinischen Praxis und Lehre. Eine interaktive, stereoskopische und kollaborative Darstellung in Echtzeit ist notwendig, um die Daten vollständig und im Detail verstehen zu können. Solche Visualisierung von hochauflösenden Daten ist jedoch wegen hoher Hardware- Anforderungen fast nur an speziellen Visualisierungssystemen möglich. Remote-Visualisierung wird verwendet, um solche Visualisierung peripher nutzen zu können. Dies benötigt jedoch fast immer komplexe Software-Deployments, wodurch eine universelle ad-hoc Nutzbarkeit erschwert wird. Aus diesem Sachverhalt ergibt sich folgende Hypothese: Ein hoch performantes Remote- Visualisierungssystem, welches für Stereoskopie und einfache Benutzbarkeit spezialisiert ist, kann für interaktive, stereoskopische und kollaborative medizinische Volumenvisualisierung genutzt werden. Die neueste Literatur über Remote-Visualisierung beschreibt Anwendungen, welche nur reine Webbrowser benötigen. Allerdings wird bei diesen kein besonderer Schwerpunkt auf die perfor- mante Nutzbarkeit von jedem Teilnehmer gesetzt, noch die notwendige Funktion bereitgestellt, um mehrere stereoskopische Präsentationssysteme zu bedienen. Durch die Bekanntheit von Web- browsern, deren einfach Nutzbarkeit und weite Verbreitung hat sich folgende spezifische Frage ergeben: Können wir ein System entwickeln, welches alle Aspekte unterstützt, aber nur einen reinen Webbrowser ohne zusätzliche Software als Client benötigt? Ein Proof of Concept wurde durchgeführt um die Hypothese zu verifizieren. Dazu gehörte eine Prototyp-Entwicklung, deren praktische Anwendung, deren Performanzmessung und -vergleich. Der resultierende Prototyp (CoWebViz) ist eines der ersten Webbrowser basierten Systeme, welches flüssige und interaktive Remote-Visualisierung in Realzeit und ohne zusätzliche Soft- ware ermöglicht. Tests und Vergleiche zeigen, dass der Ansatz eine bessere Performanz hat als andere ähnliche getestete Systeme. Die simultane Nutzung verschiedener stereoskopischer Präsen- tationssysteme mit so einem einfachen Remote-Visualisierungssystem ist zur Zeit einzigartig. Die Nutzung für die normalerweise sehr ressourcen-intensive stereoskopische und kollaborative Anatomieausbildung, gemeinsam mit interkontinentalen Teilnehmern, zeigt die Machbarkeit und den vereinfachenden Charakter des Ansatzes. Die Machbarkeit des Ansatzes wurde auch durch die erfolgreiche Nutzung für andere Anwendungsfälle gezeigt, wie z.B. im Grid-computing und in der Chirurgie

IMMERSIVE, INTEROPERABLE AND INTUITIVE MIXED REALITY FOR SERVICE IN INDUSTRIAL PLANTS

The authors propose an innovative Mixed Reality solution representing an immersive intuitive and interoperable environment to support service in industrial plants. These methodologies are related to concepts of Industry 4.0. Solutions based on a mix of VR and AR (Virtual and Augmented Reality ) with special attention to the maintenance of industrial machines; indeed the authors propose an overview of this approach and other synergistic techniques. Moreover, alternative instruments are presented and their specific advantages and disadvantages are described. Particularly, the approach is based on the SPIDER, an advanced interoperable interactive CAVE developed by the authors which supports cooperative work of several users involved in training, troubleshooting and supervision are proposed. Last but not least, an overview of projects using same techniques in other fields, such as construction, risk assessment, Virtual Prototyping and Simulation Based Design is presented

Content creation for seamless augmented experiences with projection mapping

This dissertation explores systems and methods for creating projection mapping content that seamlessly merges virtual and physical. Most virtual reality and augmented reality technologies rely on screens for display and interaction, where a mobile device or head mounted display mediates the user's experience. In contrast, projection mapping uses off-the-shelf video projectors to augment the appearance of physical objects, and with projection mapping there is no screen to mediate the experience. The physical world simply becomes the display. Projection mapping can provide users with a seamless augmented experience, where virtual and physical become indistinguishable in an apparently unmediated way. Projection mapping is an old concept dating to Disney's 1969 Haunted Mansion. The core technical foundations were laid back in 1999 with UNC's Office of the Future and Shader Lamps projects. Since then, projectors have gotten brighter, higher resolution, and drastically decreased in price. Yet projection mapping has not crossed the chasm into mainstream use. The largest remaining challenge for projection mapping is that content creation is very difficult and time consuming. Content for projection mapping is still created via a tedious manual process by warping a 2D video file onto a 3D physical object using existing tools (e.g. Adobe Photoshop) which are not made for defining animated interactive effects on 3D object surfaces. With existing tools, content must be created for each specific display object, and cannot be re-used across experiences. For each object the artist wants to animate, the artist must manually create a custom texture for that specific object, and warp the texture to the physical object. This limits projection mapped experiences to controlled environments and static scenes. If the artist wants to project onto a different object from the original, they must start from scratch creating custom content for that object. This manual content creation process is time consuming, expensive and doesn't scale. This thesis explores new methods for creating projection mapping content. Our goal is to make projection mapping easier, cheaper and more scalable. We explore methods for adaptive projection mapping, which enables artists to create content once, and that content adapts based on the color and geometry of the display surface. Content can be created once, and re-used on any surface. This thesis is composed of three proof-of-concept prototypes, exploring new methods for content creation for projection mapping. IllumiRoom expands video game content beyond the television screen and into the physical world using a standard video projector to surround a television with projected light. IllumiRoom works in any living room, the projected content dynamically adapts based on the color and geometry of the room. RoomAlive expands on this idea, using multiple projectors to cover an entire living room in input/output pixels and dynamically adapts gaming experiences to fill an entire room. Finally, Projectibles focuses on the physical aspect of projection mapping. Projectibles optimizes the display surface color to increase the contrast and resolution of the overall experience, enabling artists to design the physical object along with the virtual content. The proof-of-concept prototypes presented in this thesis are aimed at the not-to-distant future. The projects in this thesis are not theoretical concepts, but fully working prototype systems that demonstrate the practicality of projection mapping to create immersive experiences. It is the sincere hope of the author that these experiences quickly move of the lab and into the real world

Situated Displays in Telecommunication

In face to face conversation, numerous cues of attention, eye contact, and gaze direction provide important channels of information. These channels create cues that include turn taking, establish a sense of engagement, and indicate the focus of conversation. However, some subtleties of gaze can be lost in common videoconferencing systems, because the single perspective view of the camera doesn't preserve the spatial characteristics of the face to face situation. In particular, in group conferencing, the `Mona Lisa effect' makes all observers feel that they are looked at when the remote participant looks at the camera. In this thesis, we present designs and evaluations of four novel situated teleconferencing systems, which aim to improve the teleconferencing experience. Firstly, we demonstrate the effectiveness of a spherical video telepresence system in that it allows a single observer at multiple viewpoints to accurately judge where the remote user is placing their gaze. Secondly, we demonstrate the gaze-preserving capability of a cylindrical video telepresence system, but for multiple observers at multiple viewpoints. Thirdly, we demonstrated the further improvement of a random hole autostereoscopic multiview telepresence system in conveying gaze by adding stereoscopic cues. Lastly, we investigate the influence of display type and viewing angle on how people place their trust during avatar-mediated interaction. The results show the spherical avatar telepresence system has the ability to be viewed qualitatively similarly from all angles and demonstrate how trust can be altered depending on how one views the avatar. Together these demonstrations motivate the further study of novel display configurations and suggest parameters for the design of future teleconferencing systems