WACL: supporting telecommunications using - wearable active camera with laser pointer

We propose a wearable active camera with laser pointer (WACL) as a human interface device for use in telecommunications. The WACL laser pointer is attached to the active camera-head and it can point a laser spot while elevating and panning the camera-head. In our system, a remote instructor can observe around the worker, who is wearing the WACL, independently of the workers motion, and can clearly and naturally instruct the worker in tasks by pointing the laser spot at real objects. This paper describes the outline of a telecommunication support system using the WACL and a method to stabilize the camera and laser pointer independently of the wearers motion. We have implemented and demonstrated an example of an application using our system. 1.