Effects of avatar and background representation forms to co-presence in mixed reality (MR) tele-conference systems

TLDR

Traditional 2D video teleconferencing is evolving into immersive 3D mixed‑reality systems, and the sense of co‑presence is a critical quality that may be affected by VR/AR media presentations. The study aims to compare mixed‑reality 3D collaborative media by varying background (real vs. virtual) and user representation (photo‑realistic reconstruction vs. pre‑built avatar).

Abstract

With continued technology innovation, the traditional 2D video based tele-conferencing and collaborative systems are evolving into ones that are immersive, 3D, more interactive and even augmented in real environment. One important quality of a tele-collaboration system is the sense of co-presence as felt by the participating users. Virtual and augmented reality based implementations and media presentation will have different ramification toward the sense of co-presence and effectiveness of the communication. In this paper, we propose to carry out a preliminary study comparing various mixed reality based 3D collaborative media in two dimensions: (1) the form of the background (real vs. virtual) and (2) the form of user (photo-realistically reconstructed vs. pre-built 3D avatar). The traditional video based system is also compared as a reference for which both the background and user is represented in real but in 2D flat screen. We present the experimental design and report the results.