Tele-immersion is a technology to be implemented with Internet2 that will enable users in different geographic locations to come together in a simulated environment to interact. Users will feel like they are actually looking, talking, and meeting with each other face-to-face in the same room.
This is achieved using computers that recognize the presence and movements of individuals and objects, tracking those individuals and images, and reconstructing them onto one stereo-immersive surface.
3D reconstruction for tele-immersion is performed using stereo, which means two or more cameras take rapid sequential shots of the same object, continuously performing distance calculations, and projecting them into the computer-simulated environment, as to replicate real-time movement.
Tele-immersion presents the greatest technological challenge for Internet2.
