Design, implementation, and performance of a scalable multi-camera interactive video capture system

We describe a system for interactive, real time, multi-camera video capture and display. The system is almost entirely software-based and as a result is flexible and expandable. Computation and data storage is provided by the Carnegie Mellon-Intel Corporation iWarp computer. Video display is accomplished using a High Performance Parallel Interface network to write to a high resolution frame buffer Video can be displayed as it is captured, with only a single frame latency. We provide interactivity with a VCR-like graphical interface running on a host workstation, which in turn controls the operation of the capture system. This system allows a user to interactively monitor, capture, and replay video with the ease of use of a VCR, yet with flexibility and performance that is unavailable in all but the most expensive and customized video capture systems