Title: Transparent eye contact and gesture videoconference

Authors: Thitiporn Lertrusdachakul*, Akinori Taguchi, Terumasa Aoki, Hiroshi Yasuda

Addresses: Department of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan. ' Department of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan. ' Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153-8904, Japan. ' Center for Collaborative Research, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 153–8904, Japan

Abstract: In this paper, we propose an innovative videoconferencing system called |IshinDenshin System|, in which the participant|s image and shared workspace are naturally merged. This system proposes an idea to improve the efficiency of conferencing by supporting eye contact and presence of finger pointing. A small video camera is placed at the common point of gaze direction between the display and camera. The transparent-based division is applied. Thus, the participants can use their fingers to indicate any portion as in face-to-face interaction, particularly for indicating shape, size, and direction. The performance of the system has been observed based on the preliminary experiments of an implemented 2-way videoconferencing system. The results prove the merits of the proposed idea in increasing the sense of reality by eye contact and simple user interface of finger pointing.

Keywords: videoconference; telepresence; collaboration; eye contact; gesture.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWMC.2005.008052

International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing, 2005 Vol.1 No.1, pp.29 - 37

Published online: 10 Nov 2005 *

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