filename : p_Wue04a.pdf entry : inproceedings pages : year : 2004 title : Dynamic Point Samples for Free-Viewpoint Video author : Stephan Würmlin, Edouard Lamboray, Michael Waschbüsch, Markus Gross booktitle : Proceedings of the Picture Coding Symposium 2004, San Francisco, December 15-17, 2004 editor : publisher : language : English month : December keywords : Free-viewpoint video, point-based representations, compression, MPEG-4 abstract : Free-viewpoint video (FVV) uses multiple video streams to re-render a time-varying scene from arbitrary viewpoints. FVV enables free navigation with respect to time and space in streams of visual data and allows for virtual replays and for freeze-and-rotate effects, for instance. Moreover, FVV technology can improve communication between remote participants in high-end telepresence applications. In combination with spatial-immersive projection environments, 3D video conferencing allows for life-size, three-dimensional representations of the users instead of small, flat video images. In this paper we propose the application of dynamic point samples as primitives for FVV by generalizing 2D video pixels towards 3D irregular point samples. The different attributes of the point samples define appearance and geometry of surfaces in a unified manner. Furthermore, by storing the reference to a pixel in an input video camera efficient coding and compression schemes can be employed for FVV. We show two different systems for free-viewpoint video using this primitive, namely a real-time FVV system employed in a high-end telecollaboration system and a FVV recording system using two different representations and coding schemes. We evaluate performance and quality of the presented systems and algorithms using the blue-c system with its portals. Both presented 3D video systems are integrated into the telepresence software system of the blue-c, ready to use and demonstrable.