STTR Phase I: 3D Media Synchronization for Educational Tele-gaming

这个小型企业技术转让第一阶段项目旨在通过开发多站点3D多媒体集成和同步技术，为数字游戏提供新颖的远程沉浸式界面。这些界面将允许地理上分布的个人在共享的3D虚拟游戏环境中无缝交互和学习。 该项目的重点是开发，评估和传输远程沉浸式技术，在分布式多站点游戏中同步多个相关和空间音频和3D视频流。需要这些技术来创建界面，以新颖的方式将学习者聚集在一起，并可能改变基于数字游戏的文化教育。 当前的多媒体技术仅完全解决音频和2D视频流对的同步。 拟议工作的目标是（i）通过坚固的原型设计和实验验证实现站点到站点的3D多音频/视频流同步解决方案，（ii）确定并将严重的游戏要求，可用性和评估因素纳入远程沉浸式界面，以及（iii）设计，开发和评估多站点，3D多视频/音频流同步功能的扩展。 该项目建立在伊利诺伊大学进行的研究基础上，其更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于，该项目将能够创建一个4D远程沉浸式界面，该界面代表了参与者可以通过跨距离实时远程沉浸参与严肃游戏的方式的范式转变。 这些新的环境将通过提供（i）由地理分隔的游戏者/学习者之间的实时远程沉浸式对话，（ii）模拟到其他文化的旅行，以及（iii）与来自其他文化的个人和团体进行结构化互动的方式来促进文化意识和理解。 拟议的界面将允许参与者（以及他们希望随身携带的任何物理对象）沉浸在共享的虚拟空间中，并相互自由互动，轻松地将人类行为的复杂性带入游戏。 其商业潜力在于通过用虚拟空间中的3D实时捕捉和个人记录来取代3D空间和化身行为的编程，同时保持最大的灵活性和真实性，从而大大减少游戏开发时间和成本。 较低的游戏开发成本将使许多小型个人学习游戏的部署成为可能，否则使用当前的方法开发这些游戏成本太高。远程沉浸式界面及其基础同步技术还将在女孩和妇女特别感兴趣的教育游戏中实现新的社交互动和协作能力。

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project aims to enable novel teleimmersive interfaces for digital gaming via the development of multi-site 3D multimedia integration and synchronization technologies. These interfaces will allow geographically distributed individuals to interact seamlessly with each other and learn in shared 3D virtual gaming environments. The focus of this project is to develop, evaluate, and transfer teleimmersive technologies that synchronize multiple correlated and spatial audio and 3D video streams in distributed multi-site games. These technologies are required to create interfaces that will bring together learners in a novel manner and potentially transform cultural education based on digital gaming. Current multimedia technologies only fully address the synchronization of pairs of audio and 2D video streams. The objectives of the proposed work are to (i) implement site-to-site 3D multi-audio/video streams synchronization solutions through rugged prototyping and experimental validation, (ii) identify and incorporate serious gaming requirements, usability and evaluation factors into the teleimmersive interface, and, (iii) design, develop and evaluate the extension of the synchronization capabilities for multi-site, 3D multi-video/audio streams. The project builds on research conducted at the University of Illinois.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project lies in that the project will enable the creation of a 4D teleimmersive interface that represents a paradigm shift in the manner participants can be engaged in serious gaming through real-time teleimmersion across distances. These new environments will promote cultural awareness and understanding by providing (i) real-time teleimmersive dialogue between gamers/learners separated by geography, (ii) simulated travel to other cultures, and (iii) the means for structured interactions with individuals and groups from other cultures. The proposed interface will allow participants (and any physical objects they wish to bring with them) to be immersed in a shared virtual space and interact freely with each other, easily bringing into the games the complexity of human behavior. The commercial potential lies in greatly reducing game development time and costs by replacing the programming of 3D spaces and avatar behavior with 3D live capture and recordings of individuals in virtual spaces while retaining maximum flexibility and authenticity. The lower game development costs will enable the deployment of many small individual learning-games that may otherwise simply be too costly to develop using current methods. The teleimmersive interfaces and their underlying synchronization technologies will also enable new social interactions and collaboration capabilities in the educational games that are of particular interest to girls and women.