HEAD TRACKING AND COLOR VIDEO ACQUISITION VIA NEAR INFRARED LUMINANCE KEYING

A system and corresponding method for head tracking and color video acquisition via near infrared luminance keying is disclosed. The head of the local user is tracked in real time by uniformly illuminating a rear projection screen that surrounds a display cube with light having a wavelength in the near-infrared spectrum. A near-infrared image of the head of the local user is acquired by a near-infrared camera equipped with filters that discern the difference between the illuminated rear projection screen and any foreground illumination. A color image of the head of a local user and the projection of a remote location are acquired by a color camera, placed in close proximity to the near-infrared camera. A bounding box is then placed around the head of the local user in the near-infrared image. This bounding box is then translated to the view space of the color camera. This translated image is then used to crop the color image. The cropped color image is then transmitted to the remote location.