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Here are number of screen captures demonstrating some of the capabilities of the Holographic Video Player. Automatic depth perception is a very ambitious task. Once the software understands the geometric structure of the scene, while still in real time, it renders a wireframe and continuously updates this as the video changes. Then, you can navigate around objects as the video plays.

This all happens using ordinary video, and even historic film footage. There is no manual intervention to mark out the foreground objects, no tracking markers, and no special hardware like laser range finders or stereoscopic cameras. It works with all of the standard digital video formats, and home users can render and navigate on ordinary home PCs. This is designed to be a robust consumer product for home entertainment. It is like having a 3D camera that saves the physical scene structure along with each two-dimensional image.

In each of the clips below, you'll see Dr. Craig Summers testing a variety of different capabilities of the Holographic Video Player. You can view each of the following avi movie files with Windows Media Player or Quicktime, as you prefer. Note that the file sizes are between 2 and 11 megabytes (mb), and will require at least a few seconds to download.

Embossed video (5.7 mb): The most seamless approach to Holographic Video is to keep the foreground objects attached to the background. The scene is paused in this clip, to allow an inspection in 3D. This was created automatically by the software, with no human intervention. Compare the photorealistic quality of the the head model to the primitive characters that are currently state of the art in 3D console games.
Background Fill-In (2.8 mb): One of the powerful capabilities of the software is the background that it generates. By buffering occluded areas as foreground objects move, a complete representation of the background is created. So when you navigate around in the scene, you can look behind objects. In this experimental version of the player, we have left the right window visible, so that you can see yourself disappear in the foreground.
Foreground separation (4.2 mb): There is a control in the Player that gives you the option to separate foreground objects from the background. In this real-time example, the viewpoint is changed while the video is running. The 3D rendering happens in real time. Note that when viewed in perspective, you can see occluded background objects. There is no empty space on the wall where Dr. Summers is blocking the camera's view! The window on the right shows the background that the software has created for the scene model.
Binocular displays (3.4 mb): Few head-mounted display goggles have stereoscopic content that displays different perspectives to each eye, because of the costs of production with special stereoscopic cameras. Our software solves this problem by generating left-eye and right-eye views in real time from ordinary video. Why use a binocular display if you are not going to have different views for each eye? This gives you pop-out like in the traditional Disney Viewmaster -- except now it is with running video, processed in real-time, that you can navigate in 3D!
Grand finale (11 mb): Watch in this example as we render red and green channels in real time for left and right-eye perspectives with anaglyph 3D glasses. Note that on the right, the scene model is shown with the foreground person removed. So when the 3D scene is viewed in perspective, there are no holes behind occluding objects. 3D navigation in moving video from an ordinary movie, that you can watch with stereoscopic pop-out.

 

Demo Videos