Telepresence by real-time view-dependent image generation from omnidirectional video streams

This paper describes a new approach to telepresence which realizes virtual tours into a visualized dynamic real world without significant time delay. We propose a novel concept of instantour which enables us to instantly look around a visualized space of a dynamic real world. The instantour is realized by the following two steps: (1)video-rate omnidirectional image acquisition and (2)real-time view-dependent perspective image generation from an omnidirectional video stream. The proposed technique is applicable to real-time telepresence in the situtation where the real world to be seen is far from an observation site, because the time delay from the change of viewing direction to the change of displayed image does not depend on the actual distance between both sites. Moreover, multiple users can look around from a single viewpoint in a visualized dynamic real world in different directions at the same time. The proposed technique is also useful for another type of telepresence which uses recorded omnidirectional video streams. We have developed a prototype of virtual instantour system and have successfully experimented with real dynamic scenes.http://library.naist.jp/mylimedio/dllimedio/show.cgi?bookid=100009600&oldid=1693