MS develops a different way to meet online
Post | at | by Mike
Improved videoconferencing and online searching, plus a clever way to judge the value of newsgroups, are just three among hundreds of projects under way at Microsoft Research. Cutler built the RingCam, a circle of five or six inexpensive video cameras all pointed outward. It accomplishes technically difficult feats, like producing a single image and compensating for differences in the cameras' different color calibrations. Placed in the center of a room, it's the best way yet to broadcast a meeting. A version with eight cameras is planned.
Software developed for the RingCam lets it distinguish faces, which are important, from background, which isn't, and allocates less bandwidth to the background. That and similar techniques allow videoconferencing with just a DSL connection, not the costly T1 lines usually required, Cutler said.