Keynotes
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 Speaker Anthony James Steed

 Talk From Presence to Telepresence

 Abstract Consumer virtual reality is poised to take off. Most current developers for the consumer platforms are focussing on creating virtual environments with fun or exciting new content. While we eagerly await these novel experiences, in this talk we will argue that the potential for real-time telepresence is potentially a more disruptive use of these technologies. Drawing on our recent experiments and demonstrations of telepresence systems and social virtual reality experiences, I will discuss how telepresence might embed virtual reality technologies in a broad range of social situations. I will discuss some of our ongoing projects in this area and the specific technical challenges that we are starting to tackle.

 Bio Professor Anthony Steed is Head of the Virtual Environments and Computer Graphics (VECG) group at University College London. His research interests extend from virtual reality systems, through to mobile mixed-reality systems, and from system development through to measures of user response to virtual content. He is director of the UCL Centre in Virtual Environments, Interaction and Visualisation (UCL VEIV), a specialist doctoral training centre supported by a wide variety of companies. In 2011 he co-founded a university spin-out (ASIO Ltd) that has won several awards for its Chirp app, including being short-listed for the UK’s Designs of the Year award.
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 Speaker Xin Tong

 Talk High fidelity 3D acquisition for everyone

 Abstract The prevalence of image and depth sensors (e.g. mobile phone cameras and Kinect) has enabled people to easily digitize the real world. However, the casual acquisition setting and noisy data of these devices typically lead to low quality results and thus limit their usage in many AR/VR applications. In this talk, I will present several techniques we have developed in Microsoft Research, which help people to easily and efficiently capture high fidelity 3D objects, scenes, and human performance with common devices.

 Bio Xin Tong is a principal researcher of Internet Graphics Group at Microsoft Research Asia. His main research interests include appearance modeling and rendering, texture synthesis, realistic rendering, and performance capturing. Xin obtained his Ph.D. degree from Tsinghua University in 1999, and his B.S. Degree and Master Degree from Zhejiang University in 1993 and 1996 respectively. He served as paper co-chair of Pacific Graphics in 2013 and associate editor of Computer Graphics Forum from 2011 to 2104. Now he is associate editor of IEEE TVCG.
Award
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Best Paper Award
Shunichi Kasahara and Jun Rekimoto. JackIn Head: Immersive Visual Telepresence System with Omnidirectional Wearable Camera for Remote Collaboration


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Second Best Paper Award
Pooya Rahimian and Joseph K Kearney. Optimal Camera Placement for Motion Capture Systems in the Presence of Dynamic Occlusion


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Best Poster Award
Ernst Kruijff, Christina Trepkowski and Rob Lindeman. The Effect of Vibration and Low-Frequency Audio on Full-Body