Imagine porting yourself into your favourite video game using a simple device!
A researcher at the University of California has combined three Microsoft Kinect devices with an Oculus Rift headset to import a graphical 3D representation of himself into a virtual reality.
Oliver Kreylos merged the Kinects' video stream before feeding it into the Oculus headset, giving the impression of a solid 3D object, the 'BBC News' reported.
The test object is Kreylos himself, who can be seen sitting in a virtual office.
Because the technology is an early prototype, it suffers from low resolution and it is prone to glitches.
The three Microsoft's Xbox Kinects that were used for the process, are positioned in an equilateral triangle to precisely capture the subject. The image of the subject is then beamed into the Oculus Rift headset.
Kreylos is able to control the camera in such a way that he can see himself in both a first and third person perspective.
The Kinect is equipped with a 3D camera, providing the missing bits of information necessary for 3D reconstruction that a regular camera does not have, the report said.
Kreylos, researcher at University of California, Davis, said in his blog that despite the low quality of the image, it still feels very real.
"I believe it's related to the uncanny valley principle, in that fuzzy 3D video that moves in a very lifelike fashion is more believable to the brain than high-quality avatars that don't quite move right," said Kreylos.
