Award Winners
Infocom Corporation Technical Planning Office
Video URL：https://youtu.be/8zCsN3hCmLc
Manual URL： https://tamago.talkin.info/doc/tamagoUserManual.pdf
Application URL：https://lab.infocom.co.jp/2016/08/theta.html
Existing video chat applications often cater to the needs of one-to-one chat only. It is often difficult and awkward to show many people at the same time in a meeting room.
Using Shotoku Tamago, you can display the remote video in real time, covering the wide area of the meeting room at once using RICOH THETA S, and show the speaker automatically by identifying the person (sound source) using a microphone array consisting of multiple microphones.
Main features
- Real-time transmission/reception of 360 degrees image of RICOH THETA S and voice using WebRTC
- Auto-focus on the detected direction of sound source
・If there are multiple speakers at the same time, they are shown in small windows.
・You can exclude a noise coming from a particular direction. - The viewpoint can be adjusted manually by overriding automatic mode.
Motivation
After considering the next stage of user experience of RICOH THETA S, we have come to the conclusion of using sound sensor with it.
Necessary equipment
Egg-shaped microphone array is necessary in addition to RICOH THETA S.
This work takes advantage well of 360 degree RICOH THETA which combines 360-degree image and sound, and uses it for remote communication, and is an innovative work that fits nicely with the IoT age. The objective and target of the application is very clear with this submission. The necessity of using 360 degree image and the utility, innovation and future potential are radiating from Shotoku Tamago.
The perfection, and the usefulness are evaluated highly by the judges, but there is room for "playfulness" and “lifestyle” that can be extended as well. "Conference/Meeting system" certainly is its target, but the main them is the many-to-many communication and thus this work can be used in other situations. It may be possible to building interesting applications using voice recognition such as one that focuses on one's child for security purposes in a space such as town street or a hall in a kindergarten.