Voicu Popescu Purdue University "CRCD/EI: Effective Distance Learning Through Sustained Interactivity and Visual Realism" $539,999
This project combines research in vision, image processing, robotics, and computer graphics to create a novel distance learning system that enables instructors and remote learners to feel a "sense of presence" in the classroom. The project involves researching, developing, deploying and assessing a distance learning system that extends the real classroom to accommodate remotely located students in a unique way. The system's effectiveness comes from conveying a strong sense to both remote and local participants that the remote participants are actually present in the classroom. The sense of presence is enabled by: Interactivity -- the system supports high-bandwidth, low-latency, uninterrupted, and secure communications between the participants; High-quality graphics -- the system provides realistic, visual descriptions of the classroom, instructor, students, and of the lecture materials by combining segmented high-resolution real-time video with pre-downloaded photorealistic 3D models and presentation materials. The virtual classroom that hosts the remotely located students is seamlessly integrated with the real classroom. The real classroom is extended to accommodate remotely located students. Each remotely located student is acquired in real-time and integrated in a common virtual 3D classroom that is rendered and projected continually on a wall of the real classroom. At the local site, the instructor sees the remotely located students as if they were local students seated in additional rows at the back of the classroom. The model of the virtual classroom is photorealistic, with a geometry that allows the instructor to easily see the remote participants well. At the remote site students participate in the lecture using a personal computer and a digital video camera with a rapid interface broadband connection to the Internet. The PIs anticipate that their system will overcome many of the shortcomings of current distance education including: inadequate graphical representation of the remote students; inadequate integration of the virtual classroom; lack of support for individual remotely located students; lack of support of other educational activities; and missing or inadequate tools for digital content creation.
