Microsoft Developing Video Calling That Projects People in Front of You

The Microsoft Research team is working on a new concept dubbed Room2Room, a video calling technology that uses Kinect cameras to capture the image of a person in 3D and project it in the other user's room in its life-size version.

The Redmond-based tech giant uses Kinect depth cameras and digital projectors to capture the image as a part of video call to make the other users feel like they are actually in a conversation with a person in front of them. The captured image is projected in real time on to a piece of furniture to make the conversation look natural. Each person can even see the other party from different viewpoints, according to the researchers.

The Room2Room technology makes use of Microsoft's RoomAlive, an augmented-reality project that creates a room size version of a gaming arena by using Kinect depth-sensing cameras and digital projectors.

The researchers say that they still need to fix several issues before bringing it to boardrooms or living rooms. In addition, the setup does not produce high-quality images for now, said Tomislav Pejsa, who worked on Room2Room, to MIT Technology Review.

Microsoft has been pushing its limits lately in the field of augmented reality. The company recently in an event gave some more details on its Hololens headset. The wearable can run for up to 5.5 hours, but on heavy usage, the battery life drops to 2.5 hours. In addition, Microsoft will not be offering an immersive screen experience in the initial models of the Microsoft Hololens. The models will initially be limiting the field of view to 15-inch screen from about two feet away. The view is likely to get wider over time as Microsoft improves its manufacturing capabilities and costs. The company has also given us a glimpse of its machine-learning technology via the Microsoft Selfie app, which it updated recently.