Oliver Kreylos, a researcher at University of California, has combined three Microsoft Kinect
devices with an Oculus Rift headset to import a graphical 3D
representation of himself into a virtual reality. Thus the first Star
Trek ‘holodeck’ is born.
The process is made by merging the Kinects’ video stream before feeding it into the Oculus headset, thereby giving the impression of a solid 3D object. The test object is Mr Kreylos himself, who can be seen sitting in a virtual office. Well, if you were working on this wouldn’t you want to put yourself right in the action first?
Because the technology is an early prototype, it suffers from low
resolution and it is prone to glitches. The three Microsoft’s Xbox
Kinect’s that were used for the process, are positioned in an
equilateral triangle to precisely capture the subject. The image of the
subject is then beamed into the Oculus Rift headset
The technology allows the user to be able to control the camera in such a way that he/she can see themselves in both a first and third person perspective. Unlike any ordinary 2D camera, the Kinect is equipped with a 3D camera. This provides the missing pieces of information that is necessary for a 3D reconstruction.
Mr Kreylos said in his blog that even though the images are low quality, it still feels very real. “I believe it’s related to the uncanny valley principle, in that fuzzy 3D video that moves in a very lifelike fashion is more believable to the brain than high-quality avatars that don’t quite move right.”
Hopefully, this issue will be overcome soon. I can’t wait to see where this kind of technology will be in a few years.
As always, if you would like to leave a sensible comment, then please do so in the comments section below
The process is made by merging the Kinects’ video stream before feeding it into the Oculus headset, thereby giving the impression of a solid 3D object. The test object is Mr Kreylos himself, who can be seen sitting in a virtual office. Well, if you were working on this wouldn’t you want to put yourself right in the action first?
The technology allows the user to be able to control the camera in such a way that he/she can see themselves in both a first and third person perspective. Unlike any ordinary 2D camera, the Kinect is equipped with a 3D camera. This provides the missing pieces of information that is necessary for a 3D reconstruction.
Mr Kreylos said in his blog that even though the images are low quality, it still feels very real. “I believe it’s related to the uncanny valley principle, in that fuzzy 3D video that moves in a very lifelike fashion is more believable to the brain than high-quality avatars that don’t quite move right.”
Hopefully, this issue will be overcome soon. I can’t wait to see where this kind of technology will be in a few years.
As always, if you would like to leave a sensible comment, then please do so in the comments section below
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