UNC-Chapel Hill, Animatronic Shader Lamps Avatars at ISMAR 2009

At ISMAR 2009 (Orlando, FL) we introduced a new approach for robotic avatars of real people: the use of cameras and projectors to capture and map the dynamic motion and appearance of a real person onto a humanoid animatronic model. We call these devices animatronic Shader Lamps Avatars (SLA). At the conference we presented a proof-of-concept prototype comprised of a camera, a tracking system, a digital projector, and a life-sized styrofoam head mounted on a pan-tilt unit. The system captures imagery of a moving, talking user and maps the appearance and motion onto the animatronic SLA, delivering a dynamic, real-time representation of the user to multiple viewers. This video shows the overall concept, current methods, and a preliminary demonstration.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• virtual reality
• augmented reality
• computer graphics
• robot
• avatar