Four Metamorphosis States in a Distributed Virtual (TV) Studio: Human, Cyborg, Avatar, and Bot - Markerless Tracking and Feedback for Realtime Animation Control

摘要

The major challenge in virtual studio technology is the interaction between actors and virtual objects. Virtual studios differ from other virtual environments because there always exist two concurrent views: The view of the TV consumer and the view of the talent in front of the camera. This paper illustrates the interaction and feedback in front of the camera and compares different markerless person tracking systems, which are used for realtime animations. Entertaining animations are required, but sensors usually provide only a limited number of parameters. Additional information based on the context allows the generation of appealing animations, which might be partly prefabricated. As main example, we use a distributed live production in a virtual studio with two locally separated markerless tracking systems. The production was based on a fully tracked actor, cyborg (half actor, half graphics), avatar, and a bot. All participants could interact and throw a virtual disc. This setup is compared and mapped to Milgram's continuum and technical challenges are described in detail.