August 27, 2007

Immersive 3D Videoconferencing for Dance

The TEEVE Project (Tele-immersive Environment for EVErbody), a research project from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of California, Berkeley, is an immersive 3D video conferencing system with applications for dance.

From the site's video page, you can watch the video: "TEEVE: New Digital Options for Collaborative Dance in Geographically Distributed Tele-immersive Spaces." The video file is large - 266 MB. But definitely worth watching.

The clip gives you an overview of how dancers at two different locations can interact in real-time in a virtual landscape. The images of the animated dancers in this virtual space are not as good as I would have thought - I'm curious why this is the case. But the researchers give a good overview of how the process of capturing, streaming and rendering video works.

Tele-Immersive Applications for Dance

Toward the end of the video, the researchers share their thoughts about the value of this tele-immersive application for dance education and physical therapy. While I'm obviously an advocate for technology, I don't see how virtual, distributed environments can really play a significant role in dance education. I was thinking about all of the great comments to my post in which I seek suggestions on how to continue my dance education in NYC. At least for myself, I have no desire to learn about dance and movement from teachers who are not physically present in the studio with me.

But maybe in terms of different types of remote collaborations among choreographers and dancers who are working on upcoming performances, Internet-only dances and related projects, there will be more possibilities for this immersive environment.

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