Abstract
Free-viewpoint video (FVV) is a type of immersive content in which a character performance is filmed using an array of cameras and processed into a video-textured, animated 3D mesh. Although FVV content has a unique set of properties that differentiates it from other immersive media types, relatively little work explores the user experience of such content. As a preliminary investigation, we adopted an open-ended, qualitative approach to investigate these issues. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six immersive content experts, exploring the perceived strengths and limitations of FVV as a content type. These interviews were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. We identified five themes during our analysis: they don’t look real, but that’s okay; they can really move; they don’t connect with me; encounter, legacy and truth; no technology is an island. Our analysis reveals a wide range of future research directions and provides insight into which areas may produce the most benefit in relation to the user experience. We discuss, for example, the potential impact of difficulties in supporting user engagement, aspects related to visual quality such as the importance of responding realistically to environment lighting, and tensions between visual and behavioural quality. The analysis also highlights the complex interplay of factors related to the content itself, such as performance style and the use of creative production techniques to reduce the impact of potential limitations.
Highlights
Free-viewpoint video (FVV) is a type of filmed content that supports viewing with six degrees of freedom (6DoF)
There did not seem to be one specific aspect of the visual representation that participants highlighted as the cause of this lack of realism, but a number of issues were raised
FVV has recently become practical as a content type for production XR material
Summary
Free-viewpoint video (FVV) is a type of filmed content that supports viewing with six degrees of freedom (6DoF). As FVV has a unique set of properties that differentiates it from other content types, it becomes critical to understand how these properties influence the experience. This allows us to form an understanding of what the advantages of the technology are for content producers, as well as identifying what impactful limitations remain to be addressed by researchers. Other work has used texture synthesis to warp 2D views into novel perspectives (Xu et al, 2011) In contrast to these techniques, FVV creates an animated 3D mesh of a character performance, which is reconstructed from a live-action performance using an array of inward-facing cameras arranged around the actor (Kanade et al, 1997)
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