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A collaborative client participant fusion system for realistic remote conferences

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Abstract

Remote conferencing systems provide a shared environment where people in different locations can communicate and collaborate in real time. Currently, remote video conferencing systems present separate video images of the individual participants. To achieve a more realistic conference experience, we enhance video conferencing by integrating the remote images into a shared virtual environment. This paper proposes a collaborative client participant fusion system using a real-time foreground segmentation method. In each client system, the foreground pixels are extracted from the participant images using a feedback background modeling method. Because the segmentation results often contain noise and holes caused by adverse environmental lighting conditions and substandard camera resolution, a Markov Random Field model is applied in the morphological operations of dilation and erosion. This foreground segmentation refining process is implemented using graphics processing unit programming, to facilitate real-time image processing. Subsequently, segmented foreground pixels are transmitted to a server, which fuses the remote images of the participants into a shared virtual environment. The fused conference scene is represented by a realistic holographic projection.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the MSIP (Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning), Korea, under the ITRC (Information Technology Research Center) support program (IITP-2015-H8501-15-1014) supervised by the IITP (Institute for Information and Communications Technology Promotion) and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61503005), and by SRF for ROCS, SEM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computer Science, North China University of Technology, No. 5 Jinyuanzhuang Road, Shijingshan District, Beijing, 100-144, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Song & Mingyun Wen

  2. Department of Multimedia Engineering, Dongguk University-Seoul, 26 Pildong 3 Ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, 100-715, Korea

    Yulong Xi, Phuong Minh Chu, Hoang Vu, Shokh-Jakhon Kayumiy & Kyungeun Cho

Authors
  1. Wei Song
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  2. Mingyun Wen
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  3. Yulong Xi
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  4. Phuong Minh Chu
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  5. Hoang Vu
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  6. Shokh-Jakhon Kayumiy
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  7. Kyungeun Cho
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Correspondence to Kyungeun Cho.

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Song, W., Wen, M., Xi, Y. et al. A collaborative client participant fusion system for realistic remote conferences. J Supercomput 72, 2720–2733 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-015-1580-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11227-015-1580-z

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