ITR/SY: Electronic Books for the Tele-immersion Age: A New Paradigm for Teaching Surgical Procedures

Principal Investigator: Greg Welch
Funding Agency: Brown University 
Agency Number: 1219-26215/PO 946391

Abstract
The UNC-Chapel Hill team (UNC) led by Prof. Greg Welch, Prof. Henry Fuchs, and Herman Towles, will participate in this proposal as a sub-awardee, with Brown University (Brown) being the prime awardee. The UNC portion of the work will primarily include the research (and some development) related to the sensing and display technologies and techniques that will eventually enable the results of the interaction research undertaken by Brown University. Specifically, UNC will specify and help construct two tele-immersion systems as described in the proposal (each includes projectors, screens, rendering PCs), one for UNC, and one for Brown. Each site is budgeting to cover their respective equipment. UNC will build a multi-camera-based reconstruction system at UNC, to be used to acquire 3D information from a mock surgical environment. (The 3D information will then be used by Brown in their research.) This system will include the ability to experiment with UNCs patented Imperceptible Structured Light. UNC will also pursue research related to the development of a mathematical and graphical framework for achieving sensor information efficiency for high-fidelity tracking and 3D scene capture. Finally UNC will explore new areas of display research, including multi-projector rendering for Electronic Storybook viewing, and research on hybrid head-mounted and projector-based display paradigms.