Microsoft Research working on hologram video calls
Microsoft wants to use augmented reality to put a life-size virtual copy of the person you're talking to on a video call with you in the room. The idea of Room2Room, a project from Microsoft Research, is to see whether augmented reality can rival the quality of communication of a face-to-face meeting.
To test whether it can come close, Microsoft fitted a pair of rooms with Kinect depth cameras and projectors to capture 3D images of participants and project a life-size copy of them in each room. The technology builds on another Microsoft Research project, Room Alive, that used the same set-up for augmented-reality gaming.
The researchers looked at how effective Room2Room is at enabling participants in different rooms to solve a puzzle and compared the results with actual face-to-face meetings and two-dimensional Skype video chats.
The study involved seven pairs of participants, with one participant acting as an instructor who would guide an 'assembler' in another room though the construction of three-dimensional shapes out of cubes. It then measured the time it took to complete the task and asked participants to rate the experience of 'presence'.
It took about four minutes to build the puzzle when the pair was face-to-face, about seven minutes using Room2Room, and nine minutes when using Skype video chat. Quantitative results suggest that, predictably, face-to-face communication is superior in terms of task completion time, sense of presence, and efficiency of communication enabling life-size telepresence in a projected augmented reality environment.
Microsoft said the technology is not yet ready for commercial use.
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