Arm gesture transmission for virtual reality telecommunication system

We present our plan to develop a first prototype for the virtual reality telecommunication system (VRTS) to transmit and reconstruct human arm gestures that are normally present in face-to-face communication. The gestures will be reconstructed using robotics. The first prototype is coupled with a 3D-videophone system thus enabling the transmission of audio, video and gesture information. The importance of incorporating non-verbal messages in telecommunication by use of robotics is emphasized. We discuss the possibility of using a vision based motion tracking system to track the human arm motion as well as the design issues related to the system.