Multimedia processing for building immersive environments

Abstract

User study shows that when people communicate face-to-face, they utilize physical proximity, eye contact and other behaviors to optimize the overall level of intimacy. Traditional videoconferencing lacks such a sense of immersion and therefore is not as effective as face-to-face communication. More effective communication can be achieved by immersing people in a virtual environment via computer graphics and image processing. In this paper, we present multimedia-processing techniques that are used to build these immersive environments.