Integrated Virtual Networks

IVN is a communications company which, for several years, has been quietly developing and patenting a personal computing and communications technology for live video avatars, currently referred to as Silhouette™. With Silhouette, each user in a virtual world is able to see and be seen as a live streaming video avatar at real time frame rates. Silhouette is easily and inexpensively deployable to all users throughout an organization. No special equipment is necessary - Silhouette processes the images output of a single, standard issue web camera to extract the user's video image from his or her actual environment without the need for a monochromatic (e.g. blue or green screen) background. The image is then encoded, compressed and sent to any users in the vicinity in the 3D world via IVN’s server architecture. The received images are transplanted into the 3D world on the receive end as a live image texture with synchronized audio. Silhouette is the only technology currently available that is capable of allowing users to be totally immersed quickly and easily in a 3D world via their actual image. Through navigation and proximity alone, users may selectively confer and collaborate with others in an intuitive natural real-world manner. Silhouette is energy efficient, environmentally friendly (green) and may be used for gaming, business, training and education (online learning), e-commerce, entertainment, social networking, e-government and a variety of other applications. Moreover, use of actual user video information by Silhouette allows for enhanced security for communication and controlled access to secure computer and network resources.