Importance of Gaze Awareness in Augmented Reality Tele Conferncing
Bearbeiter: Michael Siggelkow
Aufgabensteller: Prof. Gudrun Klinker Ph.D.
Betreuer: Martin Wagner
Abstract
Today communication is required and desired. Since telephony cannot convey spatial cues such as gaze or gestures and so provide a kind of social presence, video conferencing is often seen as a possible solution for this problem. However it suffers from several disadvantages. It is important for a fluent conversation in teleconferences that users are aware of where the remote participants are looking at and about what they are talking.
In this thesis I describe a new approach to maintain gaze awareness between users and on a shared workspace, that means every user knows about the gaze direction and the point the other participants are looking at. Augmented Reality (AR) enables users to see virtual objects placed in the real world and so used to display remote persons as virtual avatars in the genuine world and track their gaze at the same time. The captured gaze is reflected in the rotations of the avatars towards each other and with help of arrows on the shared workspace. Users can set up their workspace independently including the free positioning of the avatars. So they do not have to adopt to a new environment - as it is required in other systems - but can go on working in their common workspace.
To evaluate the usability and acceptance of the application a user study with thirty subjects was conducted. The results show an increased satisfaction of the users with the collaboration session and improved awareness. Especially the arrows on the shared workspace helped the users a lot. The avatars were very important to get a mapping which arrow on the shared workspace belongs to which person.
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MichaelSiggelkow - 25 May 2005