May 11, 2009

A new videoconferencing technology offers a low-bandwidth, high-frame-rate technology that creates the appearance of three-dimensionality and a strong sense of co-presence without the use of expensive motion-tracking devices and the technology could soon be at our fingertips.

Researchers at the University of Virginia presented the new technology at the International Workshop on Image Analysis for Multimedia Interactive Services in London last week.

Steven Boker, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, says they have been working on this technology for several years. They began work on a videoconferencing link to track to record and recreate these micro-expressions to see how people alter their behavior based on the slightest changes in expression of another person.

Boker said it is a "mirroring process" of facial coordination that helps people to feel empathy toward each other.

The system developed by Broker and his team allows people to converse in near real-time while each makes direct eye contact with the other. The effect is a more life like conversation.

Boker hopes this technology will be used on cell phones in the near future.