The IEEE Virtual Reality 2013 conference took place between the 18th and 20th of March in Orlando, FL. It’s the premier international exhibition and conference on the subject, attracting papers and exhibitors from around the world. Many of the more interesting papers focused on telepresence applications this year, including the winning one from the Virtual Reality Systems Group at Bauhaus-University Weimar: “Immersive Group-to-Group Telepresenceâ€.
The winning paper is locked away from view behind a pay wall, however one of the highly commended presentations focuses on the digital merging of a remote and local environment using head-mounted displays and a number of depth cameras. This was presented by a team from the University of North Carolina and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.
Make sure you watch the video demonstration of the work, whilst the graphics might not be stellar, the process looks solid and the results compelling. Picture the system implemented using better image processing and higher resolution. The paper itself can be downloaded via the link below.