Home-to-home communication using 3D shadows

In some visual communication applications it is not possible or even desired to aim at a photorealistic representation of the remote person. One possibility is to aim at stylized visual representations of remote persons, e.g., as avatars shown on a display device or as shadows in lighting. In this paper we introduce a system for persistent and ambient visual communication based on capture, transmission, and rendering of 3D shadow representations of users. The shape of a person is captured using a distributed camera array, compressed, and transmitted over the network. In the receiving end the shape is projected as a shadow on a surface using a lighting device. We demonstrate that the 3D representation of the shape makes it possible to control the 2D visualization at the receiving end in many interesting ways. For example, when controlled by tracking of the observing user the shadow may create a visual illusion of a 3D shape on the wall.