Seeing eye to eye: a shared mediated reality using EyeTap devices and the VideoOrbits gyroscopic head tracker

We present a system which allows wearable computer users to share their views of their current environments with each other. Our system uses an EyeTap: a device which allows the eye of the wearer to function both as a camera and a display. A wearer, by looking around his/her environment, "paints" or "builds" an environment map composed of images from the EyeTap device, along with head-tracking information recording the orientation of each image. The head-tracking algorithm uses a featureless image motion estimation algorithm coupled with a head mounted gyroscope. The environment map is then transmitted to another user, who, through their own head-tracking EyeTap system, browses the first user's environment solely by head motion, seeing the environment as though it were their own. As a result of browsing the transmitted environment map, the viewer builds and extends his/her own environment map, and thus this is a data-producing head-tracking system. These environment maps can then be shared reciprocally between wearers.