Robust Computer Vision for Computer Mediated Communication

In Computer Mediated Communication, static video cameras provide a restricted field of view of remote sites. The concept of virtual window has been introduced to alleviate this problem. Although this technique is interactionally attractive, early implementations have proved unsatisfactory because of lack of robustness. In this paper, we demonstrate that robustness and accuracy can be increased by combining multiple computer vision techniques such as eye blink detection, skin color histogram and cross correlation, that adapt to a variety of operating conditions.