A video communication system “Being Here System (BHS)” provides a feeling of being in the same room with a remote user when conversing. Different from a conventional videoconferencing system that displays the raw image from the remote camera, BHS displays the image that is processed in realtime to match with the local site. It extracts the remote user’s figure from the raw image. It also takes the image of the local site that is hidden by the display. Then it superimposes the user’s figure over the image of the local site, and displays this composite image. We confirmed this method could provide more feeling of co-presence to the user.
