Converging Information and Communication Technologies and Non-Verbal Communication Support in Videoconferencing (partly funded by CALT: Research into University Teaching)
This ongoing project (started 2007) investigates the influence of workspace awareness, gaze awareness and eye-to-eye contact on the communication quality in distant business and educational consultations using videoconferencing and virtual/mixed reality technology.Three-Party videoconferencing and gaze awareness
Implementation and test of a novel three-party desktop videoconferencing system. To allow for gaze and workspace awareness between the participating partners a special quasi-spatial arrangement of cameras and graphical user interface elements is chosen. We informally tested the system setup with a usability evaluation. Our prototypical solution is a customizable off-the-shelf, affordable way of supporting mutual awareness in three-party videoconferencing.Real-time Hand Reconstruction and Tracking
Enhancing desk-based computer environments with virtual reality technology requires natural interaction support, in particular head and hand tracking. Most of the research to-date has been concerned with the tracking problem itself, and has assumed reliable data. But reliable data are usually difficult to obtain in realistic mission scenarios. Our work focuses on fault-tolerant techniques for fast, noncontact, 3D hand motion capture in standard office environments. We also rely exclusively on off-the-shelf hardware components to facilitate a broad field of application.Investigating Factors influencing Trust in Video-Mediated Communication
The aim of this study is to explore the effect of increasing the amount of visual information videoconferencing partners receive about each other on several factors: trust, performance, social presence, and satisfaction with performance and task process. The primary variable of interest in this study is trust.Eye-to-eye contact in Video-Mediated Communication
We are invesitigating whether direct eye contact, normally not achieved in videoconferencing, influences the quality of tyhe communication of the partners, in particular trust, presence and task performance. We built a special hard- and software solution providing such an eye contact. Experiments are ongoing.References
Sun, J. & Regenbrecht, H. (2007). Implementing Three-Party Desktop Videoconferencing. Proceedings of OZCHI 2007, November 28-30, 2007, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.John, C., Schwanecke, U., and Regenbrecht, H. (submitted). Real-time Volumetric Hand Reconstruction and Tracking using Graphics Hardware. Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence. IEEE Computer Society.
Teoh, C., Regenbrecht, H., and O'Hare, D. (in preparation). Investigating Factors influencing Trust in Video-Mediated Communication. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. Taylor & Francis.
Regenbrecht, H. (in preparation). Eye-to-eye contact and non-verbal communication in remote advising situations. in preparation.
