Thank you to all those who've tried our program. Sorry to those who are unsuccessful in running it. Unfortunately, we don't have a wide range of equipment so we can't debug the problems that some of you are having.

We are now onto trying to developing something new, so stay tuned ...

You can now download an executable version of the Virtual Viewpoint code. Warning: this is a draft of an experimental program and there are many problems that still need to be worked on. Updated: A new version of the executable that fixes the display resolution problem is now available. The link at the bottom of this post has been updated to point to virtualviewpoint_002.zip. Please tell us if this works for you.

What you'll need:

• Webcam (must be automatically recognized by Windows)
• Windows XP (Sorry, we've only tested on Windows XP.)
• Executable and associated files. See download instructions in the next section.
• You will need to have Version 2.0 (2.0.50727.42) of the Microsoft .NET framework runtime installed. Microsoft .NET Download

Download:

• Download, save to a directory, and unzip. Download link at bottom of post.
• VirtualViewpoint.exe - executable. Click on this to run.
• bubbles.png - picture of the bubbles.
• background.png - background picture. You can substitute your own .png picture by naming it background.png.
• config.dat - configures screens. You can edit this file if you are adventurous. The default is for a 15 inch wide screen.

Operation and Controls:

• Place the webcam above the screen and connect to your computer.
• For best results, the camera should see a plain background and the space should be well-lit.
• Sit back about a meter from the camera and screen.
• Execute the program VirtualViewpoint.exe. (Webcam must already be connected.)
• Press "S" to start the eye tracking.
• Now shift your head position and watch the screen change accordingly. Be careful not to go outside the view of the webcam, which is typically fairly narrow.
• If the algorithm loses track of your eyes, press "S" again to reset the eye tracking.
• To increase reality of the 3-D virtual viewpoint experience, try closing one eye. Be careful not to cover your eye with anything as it will fool the eye-tracking.
• You might try pressing "SPACE" when your head is centered to recalibrate.
• Press "ESC" to exit the program
• Have fun, and give us your feedback.

Download Virtual Viewpoint Demo Here

Here is a list of resources that we found useful:

• OpenCV - open source computer vision software library from Intel - the standard. http://www.intel.com/technology/computing/opencv/
• Johnny Lee's website - http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/
• Microsoft C# Express - free tools to build the software. http://www.microsoft.com/express/vcsharp/
• OpenCVDotNet - C# wrapper for OpenCV. http://code.google.com/p/opencvdotnet/

There's plenty more out there, but these are the main ones we used.

It turns out that a couple of people have demonstrated what we are attempting, to combine web cam head tracking and a 3D video display:
djine85's video is in French, and seems to work quite well.

From Danny's blog, http://danielbaggio.blogspot.com/, he seems to be getting pretty good performance.

Nonetheless, we will forge on!