Multi-view data capture using edge-synchronised mobiles
This enables more accessible free-viewpoint video creation for content creators by leveraging edge computing, though it is an incremental improvement over existing synchronization methods.
The authors tackled the problem of multi-view data capture for free-viewpoint video by developing an edge computing architecture that synchronizes off-the-shelf mobile devices without custom hardware, reducing latency and improving 3D reconstruction quality compared to a centralized Unity3D solution.
Multi-view data capture permits free-viewpoint video (FVV) content creation. To this end, several users must capture video streams, calibrated in both time and pose, framing the same object/scene, from different viewpoints. New-generation network architectures (e.g. 5G) promise lower latency and larger bandwidth connections supported by powerful edge computing, properties that seem ideal for reliable FVV capture. We have explored this possibility, aiming to remove the need for bespoke synchronisation hardware when capturing a scene from multiple viewpoints, making it possible through off-the-shelf mobiles. We propose a novel and scalable data capture architecture that exploits edge resources to synchronise and harvest frame captures. We have designed an edge computing unit that supervises the relaying of timing triggers to and from multiple mobiles, in addition to synchronising frame harvesting. We empirically show the benefits of our edge computing unit by analysing latencies and show the quality of 3D reconstruction outputs against an alternative and popular centralised solution based on Unity3D.