Abstract: A system (300) for combining a panning camera (308) with one or more displays (304), such as head-mounted displays, is provided. A panoramic view from an electronic panning camera may be provided to an electronic panning control circuit (510). The electronic panning control circuit may be responsive to a view selector (306), such as a head-tracker located on a user's HMD. The electronic panning circuit selects the desired portion of the panoramic view to send to the user's display. A stereoscopic, view providing for a depth-of-field effect simulating actual vision, stereo view is achieved by locating a first electronic panning camera (502) in an optically horizontally offset relation with a second electronic panning camera (504). An image splitter (510), such as a half silvered mirror, sends the same, slightly horizontally offset, to both cameras. Individually pannable views may be delivered to users via a communications network (312).

Abstract: A novel video object extraction has a first object 12, such as a foreground object, illuminated with visible light 16 and a second object 14, such as a background object, illuminated with a combination of infrared 18 and visible light 16. A novel camera system observes the scene. The novel camera system includes an infrared light camera 24 and a visible light camera 20. The infrared light camera output 24 contains bright images of the second object 14, with relatively little brightness of the first object 12. The signal from this infrared light camera 20, once thresholded, serves as a key to remove the second object 14 from the video image captured by the visible light camera 20.

Abstract: Disclosed is a virtual display (300) which provides a wide field-of-view that is lightweight and may be as thin as ordinary eyeglasses. One version of the invention includes a display (302), such as an LCD, a microlens array (304), and an aperture array (306) disposed between the LCD and the microlens array. The virtual display provides a pin-point of light for each pixel (306) of a display (302). Each pin-point of light in collaboration with an associated microlens (308) generates a directed ray of light. The ensemble of these rays forms a coherent image on a viewer's retina. Using high "f" number microlenses permits a very short focal length between the pin-points and the microlenses and thus provides a very thin virtual display. The aperture array may be provided by a plate disposed between the display and the lens, or it may be apertures configured on the back side (away from the viewer) of the microlenses or on the front (towards the viewer) of the display.