EVO-HD: A Globally Scalable Standards-based Full-HD Environment for Immersive Collaboration

This project will develop an extensible, globally scalable High Definition (HD) standards-based platform for remote collaboration (EVO-HD) at low cost, packaged for widespread corporate, research and at-home use over existing and future-generation broadband networks. Based on the successful results with a recent prototype built during Phase I of the program, where we were able to send several HD video streams using a single mass-market low cost PC, we are confident that we can develop and deploy standards-based HD videoconferencing and remote collaboration end points, embedding many high frame rate HD streams and a wide variety of shared content in a real-time 3D immersive collaborative environment. We will also integrate these multi-HD sessions into a highly capable autonomous system infrastructure that scales from a few to hundreds of end points, at low cost. The EVO-HD system would be alone in its class in terms of scalability, minimal operational burden and cost due to: 1) its built-in field tested and proven end-to-end intelligence (based on autonomous agents), 2) its automatic real-time topology and data flow optimization, 3) its ability to integrate across a wide range of home and work environments (including low cost mass market desktops, laptops and room-based systems), and 4) its unique user interface in which many interactive video streams, documents, remote desktop areas, and other information are presented live on 3D surfaces using OpenGL technology. Commercial Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: During Phase II, we will build a full EVO-HD collaboration system by enhancing our unique video codec architecture and leveraging recent mass market developments that have sharply lowered the cost of a) HD video cameras, b) large LCD and plasma screens, c) capture and graphics cards with powerful GPUs, d) libraries supporting HD resolution, e) multi-core CPUs in mass market PCs that, together with the GPUs and libraries, as well as software tools to optimize threaded applications, can easily support one or several HD streams. The creation of low-cost HD Television (HDTV) systems running EVO-HD for remote collaboration, would thus represent a breakthrough that meets the needs for widespread collaboration and remote high quality Telepresence of the worldwide research community (during Phase II), and subsequently all sectors of society including both the business and consumer markets during Phase I