Computer Graphics as a Telecommunication Medium

Mira Dontcheva   Vladlen Koltun, Stanford Computer Science
    vladlenat signstanford.edu

Seminar on People, Computers, and Design
Stanford University February 13, 2009

A key contribution of computer graphics in the next decade could be to enable richer social interaction at a distance. The integration of real-time computer graphics and large-scale distributed systems is giving rise to a rich telecommunication medium, currently referred to as virtual worlds. This medium provides open-ended face-to-face communication among ad-hoc groups of people in custom environments and decouples shared spatial experiences from geographic constraints. Two stumbling blocks precluding the flourishing of the medium are the difficulty of creating compelling content and the stilted communication mechanisms currently utilized by consumer-grade systems. I will describe recent research that attempts to alleviate these difficulties. 

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Vladlen Koltun is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. He is currently interested in computer graphics and interactive techniques, particularly in the context of telecommunication and creative expression. His prior work in computational geometry and theoretical computer science was recognized with the NSF CAREER Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and the Machtey Award.

View this talk on line at CS547 on Stanford OnLine or using this video link.

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