CRI: IAD Integrated Projector-Camera Modules for the Capture and Creation of Wide-Area Immersive Experiences

在20世纪90年代初，CAVE显示器的引入，允许一组人同时共享虚拟空间，是投影虚拟环境发展的一个重要里程碑。从那时起，许多研究人员，包括那些在英特尔，已经开发出新的方法，结合投影机到大型拼接显示器与无缝图像在任意形状的显示表面。实现广域虚拟存在涉及3D重建、模型管理和仿真以及显示方面的巨大挑战。这项工作的应用包括虚拟团队培训和远程呈现。该项目在新的35，000平方米中创建了一个独一无二的实验室。英尺小弗雷德里克·P·布鲁克斯计算机科学大楼（计算机科学综合体的一部分）致力于广域虚拟存在研究，多学科协作应用以及教育和推广。研究人员利用该设施在以下与虚拟存在相关的互补领域进行独立但协调的研究。他们的工作示例包括：在包括移动的人的房间大小的空间中的广域4D场景/事件捕获;使用时空超体积从相机的非均匀阵列建模3D场景;多人运动跟踪/捕获，其目标是实现完全无标记跟踪，特别是头部和肢体姿势;探索人类运动的时空/频率特性以帮助预测和帮助量化不确定性;宽区域、沉浸式、高分辨率多人显示器;以及将虚拟环境中的用户行为与真实的世界中的用户行为的黄金标准进行比较，以确定从技术角度来看什么是重要的。除了与广域虚拟存在相关的核心研究之外，研究人员使用这种先进的设备进行多学科合作项目，这些项目受益于紧密耦合的捕获、计算或显示基础设施。研究人员还将利用这些基础设施进行几个教育和推广项目，以开始培养下一代计算机科学家。

In the early 1990s, the introduction of the CAVE display, which permits a group of people to share a virtual space simultaneously, was a major milestone in the development of projective virtual environments. Since then, many researchers, including those at UNC, have developed new methods for combining projectors into large tiled displays with seamless imagery on arbitrarily shaped display surfaces. Achieving wide-area virtual presence involves monumental challenges in 3D reconstruction, model management, and simulation, as well as display. Among the applications for this work are virtual team training and telepresence.This project creates a one-of-a-kind laboratory in the new 35,000-sq.-ft. Frederick P. Brooks Jr. Computer Science Building (part of the UNC Computer Science complex) dedicated to wide-area virtual presence research, multidisciplinary collaborative applications, and education and outreach. The researchers use the facility to pursue independent but coordinated research in the following complementary areas related to virtual presence. Samples of their work are: wide-area 4D scene/event capture in room-sized spaces that include moving humans; modeling of 3D scenes from non-uniform arrays of cameras using spatio-temporal hypervolumes;multi-person motion tracking/capture with the goal of achieving completely markerless tracking, specially of the head and limb pose; exploration of the space-time/frequency characteristics of human motion to aid in prediction and to help quantify uncertainty; wide-area, immersive, high-resolution multi-person displays; and comparison of user behavior in a virtual environment to the gold standard of user behavior in the real world, to decide what is important from a technology standpoint.Beyond the core research related to wide-area virtual presence, the investigators use this leading-edge facility for multidisciplinary collaborative projects that benefit from the tightly coupled capture, computation, or display infrastructure. The investigators will also make use of the infrastructure for several education and outreach projects, to start developing the next generation of computer scientists.