The so-called "blue-c" is a novel three sided immersive projection system, which has been especially designed to support telecollaborative teamwork [4].Therefore, special projection screens are used, which can be switched to a transparent state electrically.The user is captured with sixteen cameras in total, standing outside of the projection room.These images are then processed to create a 3D representation of the user, which can be projected in a second installation.The whole installation has been engineered and implemented at the ETH Zurich [9].A special active stereo projection system, based on LCD projectors with additional shutters proved to work very well at a very competing price.The paper describes the background of the decisions made and the problems that had to be overcome.

This paper introduces a preliminary study about the Smart-Mesh, a novel type of active structure capable of deforming actively its shape and thus being able to form objects. It is a new approach to find a solution to the difficulties that are encountered in the field of haptic interaction in virtual environments. The paper describes the basic working principles of the structure, which allow the generation of overhanging surfaces. A first prototype based on 16 nodes and 48 linkages with prismatic joints is presented. The SmartMesh can be embedded into a table, into walls, ceilings and floors. The resolution of the SmartMesh depends on the amount of nodes and the length of the linkages. The linkages can be replaced by linear actuators.

We present blue-c , a new immersive projection and 3D video acquisition environment for virtual design and collaboration. It combines simultaneous acquisition of multiple live video streams with advanced 3D projection technology in a CAVE™-like environment, creating the impression of total immersion. The blue-c portal currently consists of three rectangular projection screens that are built from glass panels containing liquid crystal layers. These screens can be switched from a whitish opaque state (for projection) to a transparent state (for acquisition), which allows the video cameras to "look through" the walls. Our projection technology is based on active stereo using two LCD projectors per screen. The projectors are synchronously shuttered along with the screens, the stereo glasses, active illumination devices, and the acquisition hardware. From multiple video streams, we compute a 3D video representation of the user in real time. The resulting video inlays are integrated into a networked virtual environment. Our design is highly scalable, enabling blue-c to connect to portals with less sophisticated hardware.

Virtual Reality allows a simultaneous representation of three dimensional objects in different interconnected visualization installations. This offers new possibilities for distributed collaborative work. Up to now the user remained mostly without consideration. But for an efficient distributed collaborative teamwork the user should be visualized three dimensionally together with other virtual objects. A special projection installation is presented which allows simultaneous projection as well as picture acquisition of the person who uses the installation.

Virtual reality (VR) can be extended to create a collaborative distributed environment over a physical network. However, such an environment can only be established if both the virtual objects and the other users can be seen simultaneously in real time. This requires a novel technique to overcome the contradicting requirements of darkness and light for image projection and video acquisition, respectively. In order to make an inexpensive and easy-to-build solution, a camera acquisition system and a stroboscopic light are added to an existing VR system. Modifications are made to existing shutter glasses to handle simultaneous projection and video acquisition. In such a solution, the method of projection in the VR system remains unmodified. This paper describes how to resolve the conflict between the darkness required for projection and sufficient lighting for video acquisition.