3-D video without the goggles

Professor Lajos Hanzo, Head of the Communications Research Group at the University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), and his team are working on systems to support flawless telepresence with the aid of three-dimensional (3-D) 'Avatar-style' stereoscopic video and audio communications.

The team at Southampton has recently made substantial investments in 3D cameras and displays as well as in holographic visualization facilities in support of these radical research goals.

"Existing 3-D video systems are based on people wearing goggles to view them," said Professor Hanzo. "Our system is expected to become more 'immersive' by dispensing with the inconvenience of wearing goggles."

The other radical objective of the 'telepresence' research at Southampton is to conceive more 'green' wireless systems, requiring less energy than existing systems.

"The first stage is to conceive flawless, immersive video conferencing concepts and then to transfer the design principles to shirt pocket-sized compact mobile devices, such as camera-phones, within the next decade," said Professor Hanzo.

"At the moment, flawless video conferencing is not widespread, since the quality is not up to scratch. We are working to ensure that video is transmitted without errors and we are developing 'green' techniques to ensure that less energy is used."

The researchers claim that they are the first group to work on the wireless transmission of holographic video.

They will also popularize these techniques within the framework of their Indian and Chinese research consortia conducting research towards the next generation of wireless systems.