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Next: Conclusions. Up: Additional Applications of Range Previous: Remote Walk-Through.

3D Movies and Television.

A obvious use of dense range data is the creation of true 3D movies where a viewer could move to any position desired to view the movie. This is in contrast to the so-called 3D movies that are stereo projections that give the user a 3D view from the camera's location. This application requires real-time range acquisition as well as hardware acceleration to display the images in real-time. Research in this area is underway at CMU's Robotics Institute [14].

In its fullest form, a viewer could walk anywhere and look in any direction, viewing a properly reconstructed scene. For sports broadcasts, the freedom of motion holds immense appeal, in that a viewer could be on the field or court with the players, moving with the action.

Of course, movie and television directors have made their careers choosing the best presentation for the viewers, and are bestowed with awards when they do this well. To preserve this, the viewer might be restrained to a small volume, but still be allowed to move, gaining a true sense of the 3D nature of the scene.


next up previous
Next: Conclusions. Up: Additional Applications of Range Previous: Remote Walk-Through.
Lars S. Nyland
1999-04-30