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A theme-park animatronic trick could allow people act more naturally in videoconferences.

is a technique that projects an animated face that looks three-dimensional onto a dummy鈥檚 blank face. Now the trick has been exploited to project a person鈥檚 features onto a animatronic double somewhere else.

Before the dummy鈥檚 blank polystyrene face can be brought to life, the real person has to have still photographs taken from the front and side to create a 3D model of their head. This model allows the output from a single camera to be distorted to make an image that looks right when projected onto the dummy.

The user wears a headband that is tracked by a camera so that the remote dummy can swivel and tilt its head to match their movements. An audio feed with a slight delay built in means that the person鈥檚 words are synchronised with their movements, and the person being projected can see the scene around their remote double thanks to a panoramic camera in the dummy鈥檚 head.

Second-class citizen

The video above shows the animatronic shader-lamps avatar demonstrated by a comedian at a recent conference. The system has a number of advantages over conventional screen-based video conferencing, says , the computer scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill leading the project with his colleague .

鈥淚n existing 2D videoconferencing systems, the remote person is kind of a second-class citizen: they鈥檙e in this box sitting in one place, they look different,鈥� says Welch.

鈥淎nd then there are technical problems,鈥� adds Welch. The camera position in conventional videoconferencing makes it hard for viewers to judge where an on-screen interlocutor is looking, which is particularly problematic, he says: 鈥淚t often looks like you鈥檙e not paying attention.鈥�

Those problems are minimised in his system, he says, because the remote person鈥檚 eye and head movements are accurately replayed in real time.

Self-assertion

The most sophisticated commercially available teleconferencing systems can cost upwards of $1聽million, says , a member of a . 鈥淏ut they still suffer problems in conveying eye contact and gaze direction naturally.鈥�

Using projection-augmented dummies is a novel way to address that, he says, and should also make it easier for a person not in the room to have an equal part in a conversation.

鈥淲hen you鈥檙e the remote person, it鈥檚 really hard to get the attention of the room,鈥� IJsselsteijn explains. 鈥淏ut when you can move something in that room you have a much more physical presence.鈥� Simply turning your head would allow you to assert yourself, because the movement would be mirrored by the avatar, he says. 鈥淚rrespective of how realistic it is, that鈥檚 a new way to gain attention.鈥�

Mobile avatar

A range of improvements are planned to the prototype: for example, using multiple projectors to cover the sides as well as the front of the dummy鈥檚. A mobile version is also planned: 鈥淥ne of the inspirations for this system was a conversation with a prominent physician who asked if we could make it possible for him to visit remote patients as a tangible avatar,鈥� explains Fuchs.

It could also be a boon to patients, he adds. 鈥淭here are people all over the world who are unable for medical reasons to leave their house,鈥� says Fuchs. A mobile version of this system could provide a 鈥減rosthetic presence鈥� they could use to venture out and interact with other people, he says.

The animatronic shader-lamps avatar was presented at the in Orlando, Florida, last week.