Registration of Video Avatar by Comparing Real and Synthetic Images

In this paper, video avatar, made from live video streams captured from a real participant, was used to represent a virtual participant. By using video avatar to represent participants, the sense of reality for participants can be increased, but the correct registration is also an important issue. We configured the real and virtual cameras to have the same characteristics in order to register the video avatar. Comparing real and synthetic images, which is possible because of the similarities between real and virtual cameras, resolved registration between video avatar captured from real environment and virtual environment. The degree of incorrect registration was represented as energy, and the energy was then minimized to produce seamless registration. Experimental results show the proposed method can be used effectively for registration of video avatar.