MMSpace: Kinetically-augmented telepresence for small group-to-group conversations

Technologies for Social Augmentations in User-Embodied Virtual Reality

“…Both telepresence systems and avatar-mediated systems have demonstrated the functionality to replicate a high degree of nonverbal behavior [Kulik et al 2018;Orts-Escolano et al 2016;Otsuka 2016;Roth et al 2016c]. To our knowledge, the combined replication of body movement, facial expression, and gaze behavior in a shared and HMD-based avatar-mediated system has not yet been presented, and represents a first requirement (RE1) in order to support variable social augmentations features.…”

“…Billinghurst and Kato [1999] demonstrated that these principles also apply to MR and AR applications . Otsuka [2016] created MMSpace, a system supporting kinetic displays mirroring the remote user's head position in group-to-group conversations, which they find to be superior to a static avatar. Holoportation [Orts-Escolano et al 2016] allows to project users tracked through multi-camera systems realistically and reliably onto AR devices.…”

Exploring Configuration of Mixed Reality Spaces for Communication

“…The core idea was that VR/MR had the potential to enhance communication among groups of people. Since then, significant progress has been made in exploring techniques for communication [4,7]. However, less studied is the configuration (see our full definition in table 1) of people and shared manipulable objects in the environment, which may lead to a different communication experience.…”

“…The work discusses how people with different devices communicate with each other. MMSpace allows face-to-face social interactions and telepresence in the context of small group remote conferences [7]. To achieve this, the system uses custom-built mechanical displays on which images of remote participants are projected, and which move in response to users' movements.…”

Virtual Reality Technologies in Telecommunication Services

“…For another example, flexible moving displays that show a user's face to support eye contact and gaze awareness have been presented [18], [19]. Screen pose and position flexibly move automatically by mirroring the remote user's head motions, which enables the transfer of more correct information including users' behaviors such as head nodding.…”