Highly Immersive Telepresence Environments “Highly Immersive” Where I Look at All the Different Factors That Help Create a Sense of Immersion for Participants
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November 2011 Volume 26 Dear Subscribers, Our lead story this month is a Human Productivity Lab Research Brief on what makes highly immersive telepresence environments “highly immersive” where I look at all the different factors that help create a sense of immersion for participants. The brief also offers a sneak peak at a new highly immersive environment, SurroundPresence that will be coming out next year from Array Telepresence, a telepresence company founded by telepresence pioneer Herold Williams who designed the TeleSuite (now Polycom RPX). Array Telepresence has just emerged from stealth mode and is looking for a distribution partner to help take SurroundPresence to market. Herold is looking for a telepresence or videoconferencing company with a global reach that would like to put the telepresence equivalent of a Porsche Cayenne on their showroom floor. (I would have said 911 Turbo but Herold figured out a way to get the cost of a highly immersive environment under $100K and have it seat 8 comfortably ;-) The other major story this month is Vidyo has virtualized the Vidyo Router, their back-end video network infrastructure which handles multi-point conferencing, to run on a cloud computing service without the need for dedicated hardware. While Vidyo is the first vendor to release a cloud based version of their key video network infrastructure, they are one of the many on the leading edge of moving video network infrastrucure to the cloud. Blue Jeans Networks has virtualized the support of multiple videoconferencing endpoints and prosumer/consumer video services to the cloud and Teliris has announced a virtualized platform as well. Blue Jeans and Teliris are both service providers who don’t compete head to head with other manufacturers of video network infrastructure. The Vidyo announcement is a shot across the bow of Cisco, LifeSize, Polycom, and RADVISION who derive a significant amount of their income from dedicated video network hardware. Elliott Gold at TeleSpan thought the breakthrough significant enough to warrant the following: “I think that Vidyo is going to drive the hardware based videoconferencing companies in this industry out of business. And it’s going to do the same for manufacturers of stand-alone MCUs” Finally, we are still looking for a Managing Editor to help take the website, newsletter, and magazine to the next level. If you know of anyone who might fit the bill then please send them along. Warmly, HSL Howard S. Lichtman, Publisher – Telepresence Options PS If you haven’t already subscribed to Telepresence Options Magazine then sign up now as we are getting the next issue ready for the fall. Next Issue: Video Network Infrastructure, Managed Services, Inter-networking, Security, and Exchange Highly Immersive Telepresence - The Keys to Creating Immersion A rendering of the upcoming highly immersive SurroundPresence environment from Array Telepresence Organizations are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per room for highly immersive telepresence conferencing environments. What are the keys to creating highly immersive telepresence environments? What is the ROI for end-users? What is the future of highly immersive conferencing? This new Research Brief by Human Productivity Lab President Howard Lichtman examines what makes highly immersive telepresence environments "highly immersive" and gives a sneak peak at the first new highly immersive telepresence environment to come to market in years: SurroundPresence. The new environment features a new patent pending optics and image processing system called Equal-i that brings remote participants "up close and personal". Highly Immersive Telepresence - The Keys to Creating Immersion A Human Productivity Lab Research Brief sponsored by Array Telepresence By Howard S. Lichtman, President - Human Productivity Lab Download the Printable and Clickable PDF Here. Continue reading HTML Version Here. Vidyo Announces Virtualized Infrastructure: Hardware-Free Solution Provides Unmatched Scalability Telepresence Options Publisher Howard Lichtman (left), Associate Editor David Maldow (top right), Vidyo Vice President Young-Sae Song (middle right), and Vidyo's Public Relations Director Kerry Ogata (bottom right) on a demonstration call running on a completely virtualized version of a VidyoRouter, Vidyo's low-latency MCU, running on Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud Vidyo, pioneers in H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC), will be offering a virtualized version of their VidyoRouter in 2012 that will run on cloud computing services without the need for video network infrastructure hardware. Vidyo is well known for pioneering the H.264 SVC protocol which continuously monitors the performance of network quality and the capabilities of each endpoint device, and adapts video streams in real time to provide error correction and optimize video communications. By offering the VidyoRouter in a virtualized form, Vidyo is now enabling customers and/or service providers to support a Vidyo visual collaboration deployment without purchasing physical infrastructure and providing significant scalability without a corresponding investment in MCUs, rackspace, power, and the other associated costs of current hardware-based infrastructure approaches. Continue reading... Microsoft Research's Kinect Augmented Reality Room Posted by Rob Knies on Inside Microsoft Research's BlogMicrosoft Research has released a proof-of-concept video for a creating an augmented reality room using Microsoft Kinect cameras and a handheld projectors that enables users to dynamically augment environments with digital graphics. Continue reading... The Ever Expanding Telepresence and Videoconferencing Catalog We continue to expand the Telepresence and Videoconferencing Catalog, the most comprehensive overview of visual collaboration solutions intelligently explained and organized on the Internet. This month we have added 4 new entries to the catalog, including: DVE Tele-Immersion Room DVE Huddle 70 DEKOM Media Presence Environment Emerging Markets Communications (EMC) Managed Service Solutions Teliris StartPoint Continue reading... Experiencing 3-D without the glasses November 4, 2011 via VancouverSun.com -- Satosphere provides 360-degree view of art projections and puts audiences into the action The audience finds itself inside a giant uterus. Or it flies around cathedral ruins. Or it is transported to a dark, lonely forest. Such are the experiences offered by Satosphere, a new cinema with a massive dome screen in Montreal designed by the Society for Arts and Technology to provide spectators with a 360-degree view of art projections. Continue reading... A look inside Oregon State's bicycling and driving simulator laboratory Jonathan Maus (BikePortland.org) on October 19th, 2011 -- A research laboratory at Oregon State University in Corvallis is the first in the nation to integrate an advanced driving simulator with a bicycling simulator. When the two are connected, researchers can collect real-time data on how vehicle operators react in an extremely realistic, three- dimensional roadway environment. Continue reading... DHS-Funded Taser Drone Launched in Texas UAV used against insurgents in Afghanistan can incapacitate suspects from above Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Monday, October 31, 2011 -- A Department of Homeland Security-funded surveillance drone deployed against insurgents in Afghanistan that can also be used to tase suspects from above has been unveiled by the Montgomery County Sheriff's office and will be operational within a month. Continue reading... Best Videoconferencing Costume: Two iPads, a FaceTime conference, and a Bloody Gaping Hole in Your Torso YouTube Video: Best Videoconferencing Costume NASA engineer Mark Rober used some red sauce and two iPads to pretend, at whatever Halloween party he attends, that he has a huge gaping hole in his torso. Continue reading... New Cisco Offerings for SMBs - Taking Telepresence From the Boardroom to Everyroom Cisco, celebrating 5 years of Telepresence offerings, has just announced new products and services designed to increase the availability and range of the Cisco Telepresence experience. Traditional videoconferencing has been long viewed as a replacement for travel. In order for C-level execs to substitute video for travel, the experience had to be flawless. The ROI of keeping high profile execs working, rather than traveling, was easy to justify. As a result, expensive full immersion rooms, providing as close to a face to face experience as possible, saw impressive success and adoption over the last five years. Continue reading... Telepresence Options Brief - Taking the MantaroBot TelePresence Robot Out For a Spin Telepresence Options Brief is a new series of articles from Human Productivity Lab analyst and Telepresence Options associate editor David Maldow. To keep up with latest technologies and companies in telepresence and visual collaboration, David is constantly researching and interviewing market participants and will be sharing some of his conversations in this on-going series. This Telepresence Options Brief was with Mantaro Product Development Services.The Mantaro team consists of highly degreed Electrical and Computer Science engineers. With expertise in hardware and software solutions Mantaro has developed various applications including telecom switching technology, medical devices, network management and diagnostic systems, and more. Learn more about Mantaro in this You Tube Video. Continue reading... The Nov 2011 Issue of the Telepresence