Use of live video overlay on 3D data for distributed collaborative review

Abstract

Using everyday skills, such as pointing and drawing freehand sketches, facilitates effective communication when reviewing visual information. However, for sharing three-dimensional (3D) data, it is difficult to support such approaches of using hands and real ink in a seamless way. This thesis proposes a new system design called AnnoScape as an approach to performing a remote collaborative review of 3D digital data using a live video overlay of the desktop image on the viewports of the 3D scene. The system's virtual viewports are controlled with tangible handles and can be left spatially in the 3D data space. The viewports can be shared with remote collaborators both asynchronously and in real time. The system allows distributed users to navigate shared 3D space individually or jointly (synchronizing the viewport); generate an overlay of the live video of hand drawings, physical objects, and printed images from the desktop surface with the viewport; and control the legibility of the visual contents. This spatial video overlay technique in the 3D data space allows distributed users to share the live annotations over the synchronized viewports. We report the prototype design and initial experiments to explore AnnoScape's possibilities through the scenario of having remote collaborators review the exterior site and interior reconfiguration of an existing architectural setting.