Multimedia processing for building immersive environments

User study shows that when people communicate face-to-face, they utilize physical proximity, eye contact and other behavior to optimize the overall level of intimacy. Traditional videoconferencing lacks such a sense of immersion and therefore is not as effective as face-to-face communication. More effective communication can be achieved by immersing people in a virtual environment via computer graphics and image processing. We present multimedia processing techniques that are used to build these immersive environments