Big Blue Ceiling

Life-Size 4K Telepresence

What do scale and latency alone do for the sense of presence?

Eddie OffermannAudio and video hardware selection and prototyping, demonstration

Role
Audio and video hardware selection and prototyping, demonstration
Areas
Telepresence, Hardware, Research
The back of a tall projection screen in a timber frame, with cables, a microphone, small cameras and network boxes fixed to it, and a black projector on a white pedestal in front.

A "North Star" pathfinding experiment with no clever software on purpose: just the best possible audio and video at near-zero latency, life-size, over a distance of a quarter mile or more. The goal was to isolate how much scale and latency on their own contribute to the sense of presence.

A hub diagram with the sense of presence at the center and six factors around it: life-size scale on a floor-to-ceiling screen, single-digit-millisecond audio and video latency, 4K video, eye contact, spatial audio, and a distance of a quarter mile or more.
The factors the setup was built to test, with software deliberately kept out of the way.

We specified and selected the cameras, the display solutions, and audio and video networking with single-digit-millisecond latency, then used the setup to explore life-size telepresence, eye contact and spatial audio. Each end had a floor-to-ceiling screen showing the people at the other end at full scale, standing in their own room.

A four-step flow: cameras and microphones, audio and video networking with single-digit-millisecond latency, a distance of a quarter mile or more, and a floor-to-ceiling screen showing the other end at full scale.
Each end had its own cameras, network link and floor-to-ceiling screen.

Delivering high-quality AV within those constraints is a much bigger lift than it sounds.

Part of Enhanced Presence.

  • Behind a tall rear-projection screen in a timber frame: bundles of cable, a microphone at the top, small cameras on the frame and a black projector on a white pedestal. The projected person's face is blurred.
    Behind the screen: the projector, cameras, microphone and networking for one end of the link.

  • Enhanced Presence

    A run of prototypes chasing the feeling of being in the room with someone far away.

    • Telepresence
    • XR
    • Hardware
    • Computer Vision
    • Research

  • Glasses-Free 3D Telepresence

    Volumetric calls on a 45-inch autostereoscopic display, no glasses required.

    • Telepresence
    • Hardware
    • Computer Vision
    • Research

  • North Star Stereoscopic Telepresence

    A preview of a fully 3D, ultra-HD video call with realtime perspective shift.

    • Telepresence
    • Hardware
    • Computer Vision
    • Research

  • Projection AR Tabletop Gaming

    Augmented reality projected onto an ordinary table, with touch.

    • XR
    • Hardware
    • Computer Vision
    • Telepresence
    • Research