Patent ID: 8144257

Claim:
A method to produce in an area of restricted size in a realistic manner while minimizing perspective distortion and subject distortion a recording of an individual that produces the illusion that the individual is located in a larger area, comprising the steps of: (a) providing a studio booth including: (i) an interior with a front wall, a rear wall, side walls extending between said front wall and rear wall, a floor, and a ceiling, (ii) an audio and video system to detect and generate high resolution audio-visual signals comprising a recording of at least one performance conducted in said studio booth, said system including a high resolution digital camera mounted at said front wall and producing at least 1080 lines of horizontal resolution, (iii) a transmitter to send said high resolution audio-visual signals to a selected location remote from said studio booth, (iv) a computer system to receive high resolution audio-visual signals and to generate low resolution audio-visual signals from said high resolution audio-visual signals; said studio booth occupying a spatial volume fitting substantially within a footprint volume having a simple convex polygon cross-section having dimensional parity; (b) selecting a lens system for said high resolution digital camera with a horizontal field of view that minimizes subject distortion of an individual performing in said interior of said studio booth; (c) defining, to minimize subject distortion, a minimum distance that an individual stands away from said high resolution digital camera when said individual is in the interior of said studio booth to conduct a performance; (d) selecting a scenic backdrop (i) to minimize subject-background correlation distortion, (ii) depicting an area larger than said interior of said studio booth; (e) conducting a live performance in said studio booth by the individual in said interior and no closer to said high resolution digital camera than said minimum distance and generating with said audio and visual system a recording of the performance comprising high resolution audio-visual signals of said live performance including said scenic backdrop selected in step (d), said recording minimizing perspective and subject distortion and consequently making the individual appear realistically to have made the recording in an area larger than said interior of said studio booth; (f) generating with said computer system low resolution audio-visual signals; (g) transmitting with said transmitter at a selected time said low resolution audio-visual signals to said selected location; and (h) transmitting with said transmitter subsequent to said selected time said high resolution audio-visual signals to said selected location.