I'm interested in developing a cheap telepresence setup for my own use (since I don't like to travel).

Office of the Future

• Part of National Tele-Immersion Initiative?
• Project at UNC
• importance of eye contact, also is 3-d
• traditional videoconferencing does NOT afford eye contact because the camera and the screen are offset, so you are staring at a point (usually) below the other person.
• video clip (note that it's 3-d using polarized glasses, so it tracks user's head).
• official? UNC OOTF page
• National Tele-Immersion Initiative page. Project seems to have ended.
• Virtually There: Three-dimensional tele-immersion may eventually bring the world to your desk (PDF) in Scientific American. The article that brough eye-contact issues to my attention (it was reprinted in a SciAm special on IT that I just got).

Other links

• 2002 paper 3D Tele-Collaboration Over Internet2
• the importance of eye contact
• Usability glossary: gaze awareness

Solutions

• Full 3-d environment (but, expensive++)
• Machine recognition of face and modify the gaze in software so it looks like they are looking in a different direction (but: won't that screw up the expression?)
• something I'm thinking of, but might want to patent...