May 24th, 2009 
Rafi I don’t know about you, but I think the way we interact with people over long distances have to change, especially for company meetings . It is indeed a big problem, trying to convey simple points across a phone line. This problem begs for solutions. Hence, we have products like Microsoft’s Live meeting, etc. They have done a good job of combining our computers, but what if we could immerse more from our environments. What if we can meet in virtual rooms that have the same feel as a physical ones.
This is what tele immersion is all about, blending distanced environments for purpose of a meeting or accomplishing a task together. This sense of togetherness while being at two different locations can be achieved by virtual reality, gesture recognition and array of cameras.
UC Berkely has been doing some very significant work in this field. They have been working on couple of tele immersion technologies. Panorama is one of them. It’s a mix of “live dances, robotic cameras, and audio technologies, juxtaposed with large and small scale projections. This draws audience members into a performance in 360° that they can enter at any time”source. The best way to understand this project is to watch it in action:
As you see in the video, it brings together two dancers from different locations and shows them in a virtual world on the monitor. This ability of combining both environments can be used for various kinds of training. In this instance, the dancers can practice together in real time and learn from each other, imagine, a dancing coach in Russia teaching students in United States.
Similarly, this technology can be used used for distance learning. A virtual class room can be created where students interact with each other and work on assignments together. The following video will illustrate this point perhaps better. The video demonstrates two people working together on a data set:
As this video demonstrates, this technology can make collaborations over long distances very easy and fun. Imagine, meeting people from all around the world in virtual space where you can share resources and interact with virtual objects. Of course, it is not perfect. We don’t have the perfect system that can work seamlessly over the internet, but this is definitely a good start.
I think this technology has the potential to bring us closer even more, and will give us the opportunity to share knowledge and perhaps resources even if we are in opposite sides of the globe. It will definitely make meetings a lot easier.
More Images:
Credits:
Images are courtesy of Tele-Immersion @ UC Berkeley:
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[...] on Jun.27, 2009, under Computing “I don’t know about you, but I think the way we interact with people over long distances have to change, especially for company meetings . It is indeed a big problem, trying to convey simple points across a phone line. This problem begs for solutions. Hence, we have products like Microsoft’s Live meeting, etc. They have done a good job of combining our computers, but what if we could immerse more from our environments. What if we can meet in virtual rooms that have the same feel as a physical ones.”Tele Immersion – Bringing the World Together Virtually [...]