Making eye-contact with people in teleconference

In video conferences, the inability to make eye contact with remote partners has been a major obstacle for natural communication for many years, unlike in face-to-face settings. This exhibit introduces a novel experimental system called “MMSpace,” which can be used in research on finding design principles for better telecommunications. To enhance nonverbal communications exchanged with head motions, MMSpace incorporates a kinetic display avatar that can change its pose and position in synchronization with human head motions, and a newly integrated mechanism allow users to make eye contact with remote partners. Multiple kinetic avatars are configured to construct symmetric multi-to-multi conversation spaces so that users can naturally participate in spatially separated multiparty conversations, closer to face-to-face settings. Research using MMSpace is expected to lead to advanced telepresence systems and tools for communication science.

Please click the thumbnail image to open the full-size PDF file.