Neowin.net - MS boffins build real-time stereocam

MS boffins build real-time stereocam

Posted by malebolgia on 10 June 2004 - 15:11 · 22 comments & 1282 views

Microsoft researchers have created a very impressive stereo camera dubbed i2i for instant messaging. This camera can actually track the user so that the video conversation can be given a more face-to-face conversation. Along with having the ability to create 3D image if multiple webcams are used. Unfortunately no release date has been announced.

Computer science boffins at Microsoft's research labs in Cambridge have developed i2i, a stereo camera for use with instant messaging technology that automatically frames and tracks its subject. This makes it seem that the user is looking at the camera, even he is actually looking at his PC screen: so video communication is more like face-to-face conversation.

Using multiple webcams and a new algorithm, the technology creates a 3D image which can be rotated and viewed from many angles. Like 3D photography, this relies on combining two (or more) sets of camera data to produce one Cyclopean image. Unlike still photography, the algorithm can produce the image in real time, on an ordinary laptop.

The team has also developed 3D emoticons. These can be included in the combined image, and appear to float in orbit around the users head, with pretty impressive field depth. It can also blur the background, allowing a certain amount of self censorship, or insert an entirely alien background.

News source: The Register

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(1 reply) #1 Posted by mrk on 10 Jun 2004 - 15:17: sounds cool. but non broadband users will cry :p

#2 Posted by dougkinzinger on 10 Jun 2004 - 15:19: Sweetness. Sounds rockin'.

#3 Posted by elliot on 10 Jun 2004 - 15:19: Sounds excellent. It's always quite irritating when somebody is using they're webcam but it always looking downwards.

Haha 3 of us said 'sounds' all at the same time

(2 replies) #4 Posted by area91 on 10 Jun 2004 - 15:27: thats cool! but i wont be able to look down my girls shirt when she bends overt while she's on the computer

(2 replies) #5 Posted by neufuse on 10 Jun 2004 - 15:27: this has been on microsoft research's website for 3 years now!

#6 Posted by Zepolcire on 10 Jun 2004 - 16:13: Doesnt this sound like something that Matrox did a while back?

#7 Posted by Banzai on 10 Jun 2004 - 16:29: This will only work, if its cheep and and will have to be marketed to children as i cant see any corps wanting it.

(3 replies) #8 Posted by mlauzon on 10 Jun 2004 - 16:46: What the hell are 'boffins'..?!

Michael Lauzon, Founder
The Quill Society
http://www.quillsociety.org
mlauzon@quillsociety.org

(1 reply) #9 Posted by Michael Lerner on 10 Jun 2004 - 16:49: They already have face tracking, Logitech released a camera with that feature not too long ago.

(1 reply) #10 Posted by paulhaskew on 10 Jun 2004 - 16:54: ooooooo, 3-D porn... cool

#11 Posted by rogerroger on 10 Jun 2004 - 18:04: Wow 3-D. That give a whole new meaning to "mooning" someone!

#12 Posted by eXpired on 10 Jun 2004 - 23:32: Eerie. I just got done reading Ray Kurzweil's "The Age of Spiritual Machines", which includes his predictions by decade. He predicted this kind of technology would be mainstream for all telephony by 2010, which includes motion tracking and even superposition... which would, in his examples, let you see the person you are talking to as naked when they really aren't. Thus, the dude above who talks about looking at his lady friend in such places... looks like you're not the only one with the idea. This kind of technology definitely seems gimmicky at first, but I'd be surprised if it isn't eventually adopted. Rad.

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