Immersive telepresence is the concept of a video communications system that simulates complete user immersion within a remote location. Among endless possible use-cases, Plextek Consulting’s immersive telepresence concepts could help drive efficiency in the medical industry by allowing healthcare professionals to carry out remote examinations and diagnoses.
Taking it a step further, by allowing users to interact with, as well as see, a remote location it could be possible for users to monitor clinical procedures, check on wards and patients and, with advances in robotics, make it easier and more cost-effective to use medical equipment and perform surgery remotely. In addition, it enables new methods for training clinicians in difficult surgical procedures or to simulate highly complex scenarios that require rapid decision making that can make the difference between life and death.
Simply using a forward facing camera on the Oculus Rift to achieve a fully-immersive virtual reality effect brings difficulties in accurately aligning the real and virtual world whilst maintaining a low latency. Low latency is, of course, a necessity in these applications to avoid nausea as a delay of more than a few tens of milliseconds can significantly degrade the user experience.
Plextek Consulting’s innovation is to use a steerable remote camera that tracks the user’s head - allowing an interactive and high-quality immersion experience. Both HD video and tracking control are passed wirelessly between the Oculus Rift and remote head, and must achieve the required low latency and high bandwidth that will minimise lag and maximise transmission quality. This allows users to actually be able to look around with the remote camera mimicking the user’s head position to maintain a realistic and immersive visual scene.
“Allowing users to look around a remote location pre-empts the reality of them actually interacting with it,” commented Graham Tootell, Senior Technology Consultant of Plextek Consulting’s Innovation Center. “While the possibilities are endless, this could be a major breakthrough for an industry such as healthcare, where remote examinations can save lives.”
“Innovatively combining the Oculus Rift with other enabling imaging, wireless and robotic technologies presents a huge opportunity for all kinds of developers. Plextek’s specialist expertise in image processing skills and in-depth knowledge of radio and wireless communications makes it well placed to drive innovation in immersive telepresence technologies and design cost-effective solutions that bring virtual reality technology to the real world.”
Plextek Consulting has a strong capability in video imaging, including extensive image processing software and hardware design expertise.The company has developed a variety of image processing techniques which can significantly enhance new or existing products and has a successful track record of providing innovative solutions to a wide range of industries. It has worked on numerous client projects employing advanced image processing and data compression techniques that enable enhanced video system functionality at competitive price points. Application areas include remote medical surgery, assistive living and RF-based internal imaging.
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