Paper Info
Title
MMSpace: Kinetically-augmented telepresence for small group-to-group conversations
Abstract
A novel research prototype, called MMSpace, was developed for realistic social telepresence in small group-to-group conversations. MMSpace consists of kinetic display avatars, which can change pose and position by automatically mirroring the remote user's head motions. To fully explore its potential beyond previous alternatives, MMSpace has the following novel features. First, it targets symmetric group-to-group telepresence. Second, the kinetic avatars of MMSpace can produce highly accurate, low latency, and silent physical motions, by using 4-Degree-of-Freedom (DoF) direct-drive actuators, and they can express a wide range of natural human behaviors like head gestures and changing attitudes, as well as indicating the focus of attention. Third, MMSpace supports eye contact between every pair of participants, by integrating i) directional visual attention cues indicated by avatar's kinetic pose change, ii) line-of-sight alignment among the positions of persons, avatars and cameras, and iii) attention-based camera switching, which allows an avatar to always show its owner's face looking directly toward the person that the avatar's owner is looking at. The prototype targets the 2 × 2 setting, and subjective evaluations based on group discussions indicate that the kinetic display avatar is superior to static displays in various aspects including gaze-awareness, eye-contact, perception of other nonverbal behaviors, mutual understanding, and sense of telepresence.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1109/VR.2016.7504684
2016 IEEE Virtual Reality (VR)
Keywords
Field
DocType
H1.2 [Models and Princiles]: User/Machine Systems — Human factors,H4.3 [Information Systems Applications]: Communications Applications — Computer conferencing, teleconferencing, and videoconferencing
Computer vision,Visualization,Computer science,Simulation,Gesture,Nonverbal communication,Human behavior,Artificial intelligence,Mirroring,Eye contact,Avatar,Perception
Conference
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
1087-8270
8
0.88
References 
Authors
27
1
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Kazuhiro Otsuka161954.15