Real Time 3D Avatar Transmission using Cylinder Mapping

In this paper, we propose the client-server system which accomplishes acquisition, transmission and reconstruction of the 3D shape at a remote location in real time. The server consists of stereo cameras and a PC cluster, in which each PC creates a range image using multiple color images obtained from the stereo cameras connected to it. All PCs on the server side work in synchronization and generate range images in parallel with each other, which are then transmitted to the client as a point cloud. On the client side, the 3D model is reconstructed using a received point cloud by the point-based rendering method. We propose the cylindrical mapping method, which removes overlaps and annoying artifacts efficiently before the rendering process. All the procedure of generation, transmission, and reconstruction of successive range images is done in real time.