CMU Video Conference System Gets 3D From Cheap Webcams

Hesham writes "Carnegie Mellon University's HCI Institute just released details on their "why-didn't-I-think-of-that-style" 3D video conferencing application. Considering how stale development has been in this field, this research seems like a nice solid step towards immersive telepresence. I was really disappointed with the "state-of-the-art" systems demoed at CES this year — they are all still just a flat, square, video stream. Hardly anything new. What is really cool about this project, is that researchers avoided building custom hardware no one is going to ever buy, and explored what could be done with just the generic webcams everyone already has. The result is a software-only solution, meaning all the big players (AIM, Skype, MSN, etc.) can release this as a simple software update. 'Enable 3D' checkbox anyone? YouTube video here. Behind the scenes, it relies on a clever illusory trick (motion parallax) and head-tracking (a la Johnny Lee's Wiimote stuff — same lab, HCII). It was just presented at IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia in December."

Comments

Re:2.5D, not 3D

[GameMaster]

First off, the image would be an, ugly, red/blue mess. Secondly, even if you used one of the more advanced shutter glasses or polerized 3d techniques you'd still end up looking at someone wearing goofy 3d glasses abscuring eye contact. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with wearing 3d glasses when playing games or watching a movie but not when I'm trying to converse, face to face, with someone.