HoloChat: 3D avatars on mobile light field displays

Jing Liu, Armand Niederberger, Jihun Yu, Hao Li, David Fattal

Abstract: Holographic displays have long inspired science fiction writers and movie makers as the communication platform of the future. Why should we restrict ourselves to a two-dimensional screen if we can transmit our virtual selves in 3D? Despite striking advances in holographic display and 3D capture technologies, we are taking a step further in developing a complete prototype system suitable for mobile deployment (mobile phones, smart watches, tablet devices, etc.). We propose an efficient data-processing framework for 3D face capture, transmission, rendering, and display. Our framework combines the state of the art in mobile light field displays and depth sensor-based realtime facial performance capture. We demonstrate the first mobile holographic communication system through performance-driven digital avatars.