VR-Replay: Capturing and Replaying Avatars in VR for Asynchronous 3D Collaborative Design

Abstract

Distributed teams rely on asynchronous CMC tools to complete collaborative tasks due to the difficulties and costs surrounding scheduling synchronous communications. In this paper, we present VR-Replay, a new communication tool that records and replays avatars with both nonverbal behavior and verbal communication in VR asynchronous collaboration. We describe a study comparing VR-Replay with a desktop-based CVE with audio annotation and a VR immersive CVE with audio annotation. Our results suggest that viewing the replay avatar in VR-Replay improves teamwork, causing people to view their partners as more likable, warm, and friendly. 75% of the users chose VR-Replay as the preferred communication tool in our study.