[CEATEC 2012] CEATEC 2012 will be home to a number of interesting products and one that has caught our attention is the TV phone glasses prototype from NTT Docomo. Just in case the name of the product throws you off, it’s basically a phone that you wear around your head – like a pair of super smart glasses.
The glasses features a few high-resolution ultra-wide cameras that are used to capture the eyes and the surroundings of the wearer. When the wearer makes a video phone call, the glasses combine the (fish-eye) live video feed of his/her face and the surrounding area (see image in the full post) to create an animated polygonal version of him/herself – complete with digital lips that are synced to the dialogue, and audio from a microphone, the user is represented with a pretty accurate looking avatar that can even move its head in the same way. The video call from the other end will be projected onto the glasses itself, so there won’t be a need for a phone/tablet to pull it off.
If you’re wondering, why anyone would want a digital representation of themselves when they can just use regular video calling – this technology allows users to keep their hands free for whatever they’re doing while having a conversation at the same time. That is arguably handy if you phone is in fact a pair of glasses. To that end, there’s no need to find a dock to prop your phone or tablet up against, or the restriction of making video calls in front of a PC/TV’s webcam.
A pretty cool idea if you ask me, though it’ll definitely need a lot of refining before it can take off. In addition to helping you make hands-free video calls, the glasses are said to feature sensors that can monitor its wearer’s health and can recommend what kind of food you should eat. Pretty useful for people who need something to keep track of their health as well. No word on pricing or a release date, but it probably isn’t going to hit the stores anytime soon and I doubt it’s going to be cheap, or available anytime soon.
This shows the fish-eye video capture of the user’s face. This information is used as “textures” and re-mapped to a polygonal face (right)
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