Advanced 3D signal processing for Virtual Team User Environments

In this paper we will present advanced 3D signal processing for an extended architecture of ‘Virtual Team User Environments (VIRTUE)’ a recently proposed concept on immersive 3D videoconferencing. Due to certain reasons the current VIRTUE architecture is restricted to a connection between three single user terminals. To overcome these shortcomings, a flexible multi-user concept is currently under investigation. One key challenge of such a multi-user concept is a robust 3D video processing including tracking, segmentation and depth analysis, which can be applied to a couple of participants sitting in front of the extended VIRTUE terminal. Against this background this paper presents a joint segmentation and disparity estimation approach which allows an accurate and robust 3D analysis providing the required input for an arbitrary synthesis of virtual views at the remote stations.