Home | Forums | Article Search | Subscribe & Shop | Contact Us | Log Out X-ray Vision: 3D Videoconferencing Email This Print This View My Personal Library Hard Hat Area October 2005 • Vol.5 Issue 10 Page(s) 42-43 in print issue Add To My Personal Library X-ray Vision: 3D Videoconferencing Experience More Natural Videoconferencing The old AT&T advertising slogan, “[It’s] the next best thing to being there,” may have been perfect for long-distance telephone calls in its day, but it’s not exactly the perfect slogan to describe something such as videoconferencing today. Sure, when everything works, videoconferencing is a handy tool. It has many benefits vs. simply talking on the telephone, and it’s less expensive and time-consuming than airplane travel. Still, airlines don’t have too much to fear from current videoconferencing technologies. People will still travel for meetings because videoconferencing isn’t quite the same as natural, face-to-face communication. 3D Videoconferencing The next generation of videoconferencing, however, might make a dent in airline ticket sales. University of California, Berkeley researchers John Canny and David Nguyen are developing useful technologies that are poised to bring an exciting new level of natural interactivity to videoconferencing. 2D vs. 3D. One of the most frustrating aspects of videoconferencing is its flat (2D) nature. In ordinary conversation the ability to make perceptions based on gestures or object placement (or even the direction someone is looking) relies heavily on depth (3D) perception, a phenomenon the Berkeley researchers call deixis. The idea of deixis is lost when looking at a videoconferencing screen; you can’t establish eye contact through the 2D screens, for example. The researchers call this effect the “Mona Lisa Effect,” where the eyes on the display seem to follow you at all times. There just aren’t all of the normal, nonverbal connections that you’d have when communicating face to face. MultiView. Canny and Nguyen are working on videoconferencing technologies designed to improve the way videoconferencing appears on-screen, giving participants more of a feeling of “being there” and making them better able to interact with each other. The latest technology, called MultiView, makes use of multiple video cameras and projectors and a special display to give users the feeling that they’re sitting in the same room. MultiView makes use of what the researchers call spatial faithfulness, which means (in basic terms) that each participant can determine where other participants are focusing their attention, just as they would in a natural 3D environment. When participants use spatial faithfulness, they’re able to determine where others are focusing their gaze or when others are focusing their attention on another object. Making use of spatial information is important in a group communication setting. Participants often use nonverbal communications, such as eye gaze, to indicate when it’s a certain person’s turn to speak or to indicate when users should focus their attention on an object. MultiView’s components are fairly inexpensive, making use of “off-the-shelf” items. Researchers estimate that they can construct a three-person MultiView system for less than $4,000. What is more, the researchers expect costs to fall as the technology behind the projectors matures. CENIC and videoconferencing. The idea of 3D videoconferencing grew out of work between the CENIC (Corporate Education Network Initiatives in California) and the BiD (Berkeley Institute of Design). CENIC is looking to aid in development of new technologies that will benefit from the next generation of high-speed Internet. 3D applications are at the forefront of many of these types of technologies, including 3D gaming and 3D TV. 3D videoconferencing is a natural fit for CENIC, as well, in part because of its current potential commercial appeal. In the future such technologies could become part of the common technology we use to make a telephone call. Having the ability to make a 3D video phone call truly would live up to the old AT&T slogan. by Kyle Schurman View the graphics that accompany this article. (NOTE: These pages are PDF (Portable Document Format) files. You will need Adobe Acrobat to view these pages. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader) Want more information about a topic you found of interest while reading this article? Type a word or phrase that identifies the topic and click "Search" to find relevant articles from within our editorial database. Enter A Subject (key words or a phrase): ALL Words (‘digital’ AND ‘photography’) ANY Words (‘digital’ OR ‘photography’) Exact Match ('digital photography'- all words MUST appear together) Home      Copyright & Legal Information      Privacy Policy      Site Map      Contact Us Copyright © 2010 Sandhills Publishing Company U.S.A. All rights reserved.