| Telecollaboration in the Context of Augmented Reality : Application to theatrical production |
| Masters |
| Pierre-Alexandre Fortin |
Patrick Hébert (Supervisor)
Denis Laurendeau (Co-supervisor)
Louis Borgeat (Co-supervisor) |
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| Problem: More and more large scale theatrical productions are produced through a collaboration of artists coming from all corners of the globe. These collaborations lead to the challenge of uniting all of the designers in one place at the same time with the same material. |
| Motivation: The use of an instrumented castelet would allow these artists to work from a distance on common projects through the application of technologies of telecollaboration and augmented reality. A castelet is a reduced model of a stage which facilitates the design of a theatrical production. In this context, one designer moves a camera in front of the castelet to provide a point of view which will be shared among the collaborators working at a distance. The image is augmented with the help of virtual objects which can be manipulated by the designers. |
| Approach: We want to create an augmented reality system which will allow the real point of view of the castelet to be projected onto a screen and allow the encrustation of virtual objects possibly involved in the theatrical production. To this end, methods of camera calibration must be studied and applied in order to obtain a rapid and precise positioning of the cameras in the castelet environment. To obtain satisfactory results, the error of superimposition of virtual objects in the augmented view must be evaluated with respect to the position of these objects in the real scene. The occultation of objects must also be taken into account during the rendering of the augmented scene. Tools developed at NRC for the sharing of virtual objects via a collaborative environment must also be integrated to enable users to work at a distance. |
| Challenges: The main challenge is to design a system enabling a satisfactory augmentation for the users. This requires precise and rapid camera calibration based on easily identifiable characteristics of the castelet. Moreover, the augmentation must be performed while taking into account the occultation of real objects on virtual objects. Another challenge will be to allow the sharing of objects between at least two users. |
| Applications: Within the context of this project, the first application will be the castelet environment. The techniques used could be applied to most projects which require the use of augmented reality techniques (applications in medicine, architecture, mechanics, entertainment, etc.) |
| Expected results: It is expected that a tool will be designed whose efficiency will be evaluated by potential users. One user will be able to move the camera in a castelet environment while both users will be able to position virtual objects and observe the result on a screen. The quality of the augmentation and the result obtained will also be evaluated. |
| Calendar: May 2003 to December 2004 |
| Support: LVSN, LANTISS, NRC |
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| Last modification: 2003/06/11 by pafortin |
