Grant: Alliance Grants

Immersive Video (IV) technology is revolutionizing the way we experience video content, going beyond traditional 2D video. IV provides viewers with a more natural and intuitive way to discover and interact with a remote or virtual environment. This project proposes to enhance the IV viewing experience by developing technologies that allow immersion in a live environment with the ability to interact and navigate freely in real-time, over 5G networks. The research is divided into three areas. The first addresses challenges related to the acquisition, compression and rendering of IV content such as: capture of live environments with stereoscopic and 6 degrees of freedom (6DoF) capabilities, efficient analysis and compression algorithms for IV streaming, and the synthesis of 6DoF stereoscopic viewpoints in real-time. The second area aims to enhance high quality and low latency IV transport and streaming over 5G wireless networks and beyond. The final area focuses on the development of an adaptable distributed computing architecture based on microservices that can handle diverse client devices such as smartphones, tablets, PCs, and head-mounted displays. The benefits of this project include the development of new technologies to enable remote collaboration, learning and intervention, and allowing more people to participate in remote events through an enhanced immersive experience. This project will also contribute to the training of over 20 highly qualified professionals that can: in turn train others, pursue additional research, and work for companies to benefit the media industry. Finally, the industrial partner on this project, Summit Tech, will gain enhanced competitiveness for their existing as well as new products.