My Tele-Immersive Summer

Immerscom 2009

I spent much of my first week at Immerscom, small international conference about tele-immersive things. It was very much a conference by tele-immersion researchers for tele-immersion reserarchers, so much of the material was over my head. They talked about calibration, camera placement, 3D reconstruction, 3D data compression, and preserving gaze (it's really important that to capture exactly where people are looking, for things like eye contact). While it was hard to understand, it gave me a decent overview of what's happening in tele-immersion, so it served as a great introduction. I probably got more from it than I would have in a couple weeks, when I would already know the basics of tele-immersion but not all the the technical terms.

I spent a decent amount of Immerscom helping at the front desk. The talks were pretty boring (since I didn't understand half the material), so I certainly didn't want to spend all day going to them! At the same time, I didn't have anything to do until Friday, so I figured I'd make myself useful, and helped at the front desk. It mostly involved answering questions about the area, checking names off a list, and lots of reading. Friday, they had a TV and speaker set up so people in the hallway (including the front desk) could watch the proceedings. Volunteering at the front desk also granted me access to the perks of the conference (a.k.a. the food). As a research student of Prof. Bajcsy, I was free to attend the talks, but not to eat the food. As a volunteer, I was encouraged to eat the food, and even take a conference bag (I didn't).