The immersive cockpit

Wide field-of-view (FOV) is necessary for many industrial applications, such as air traffic control, large vehicle driving and navigation. Unfortunately, the supporting structure/frame in most systems usually blocks part of the view, results in "blind spot"and raises the risk. In some cases, the working site is hazardous to the pilot. In this video demonstration, we introduce a video-based tele-immersive system, called the Immersive Cockpit. It captures live videos from the working site and recreates an immersive environment at the remote site where the pilot situates. It immerses the pilot at the remote site with a panoramic view of the environment, hence improves interactivity and safety. The design goals of our system are real-time, live, low-cost and scalable.We stitch multiple video streams captured from ordinary CCD cameras to generate a panoramic video. To avoid being blocked by the supporting frame, we allow a flexible placement of cameras. This approach trades the accuracy of the generated panorama image for a larger field-of-view. The panoramic video is presented on an immersive display which covers the field-of-view of the viewer.