filename     : p_Lam04.pdf
entry        : inproceedings
pages        : 
year         : 2004
title        : Real-Time Streaming of Point-Based 3D Video
author       : Edouard Lamboray, Stephan Würmlin, Markus Gross
booktitle    : Proceedings of the IEEE Virtual Reality 2004 conference 
editor       : Jim Chen, Martin Goebel, Yasushi Ikei
publisher    : IEEE Computer Society
language     : English
month        : March
keywords     : Augmented, and virtual realities; Computer conferencing, teleconferencing, and videoconferencing; Performance of systems; Free-viewpoint video
abstract     : Free-viewpoint video is a promising technology for next-generation virtual and augmented reality applications. Our goal is to enhance collaborative VR applications with 3D video-conferencing features. In this paper, we propose a 3D video streaming technique which can be deployed in telepresence environments. The streaming characteristics of real-time 3D video sequences are investigated under various system and networking conditions. We introduce several encoding techniques and analyze their behavior with respect to resolution, bandwidth and inter-frame jitter. Our 3D video pipeline uses point samples as basic primitives and is fully integrated with a communication framework handling acknowledgment information for reliable network transmissions and application control data. The 3D video reconstruction process dynamically adapts to processing and networking bottlenecks. Our results show that a reliable transmission of our pixel-based differential prediction encoding leads to the best performance in terms of bandwidth, but is also quite sensitive to packet losses. A redundantly encoded stream achieves better results in presence of burst losses and seamlessly adapts to varying network throughput.