A 3D Videoconferencing System with 2D Backwards Compatibility

This paper presents a 3D videoconferencing system that is 2D backwards compatible. The system offers an inmersive experience to users with 3D displays at their disposal, but does not require the users to employ dedicated hardware at the sender side. Backwards compatibility is achieved by transmitting 3D content in the user data fields of the video streams, which older teleconference terminals ignore. Other highlights of the system include the use of a conventional inexpensive camera at the sender side, low bandwidth overhead and low CPU usage. The system proposed is a necessary step towards more complex systems that will tackle the 3D videoconferencing problem as a whole. Our focus is to make it possible to reuse existing capture devices to create 3D content that will be consumed by users with specialized hardware. As 3D videoconferencing technology evolves, more professional stereoscopic cameras will follow as a natural consequence.