Integrating Virtual Reality, Tele-Conferencing, and Entertainment into Multimedia Home Computers

Technological advances are revolutionizing computers and electronic devices to support digital multimedia, stimulating the development of a wide spectrum of applications , such as tele-conferencing and video entertainment , that can be ooered to end-consumers. Such applications when coupled with virtual reality, will result in a new generation of systems enabling eeective tele-personal interactions between individuals via their multimedia home workstations. The integration of virtual reality techniques with multimedia teleconferenc-ing leads to the development of tele-virtual conferenc-ing systems, that synthesize panoramic, lifelike three-dimensional video images and stereophonic audio. We investigate the architectural requirements of such systems and propose a high-level design of an Intelligent Multimedia Interface Unit (IMIU) capable of supporting tele-virtual conferencing in multimedia home computers .