CHI 2009: Movable cameras

Title: Movable cameras enhance social telepresence in media spaces

Authors: Hideyuki Nakanishi, Yuki Murakami, Kei Kato

Summary: The authors of this article attempted to show the effects that movable cameras might have in the teleconferencing world, and how distance to the person from the camera (of the person you might be talking to through a remote media session) effects how "realistic" the connection feels, and whether or not you feel like you are in the same room as the person. The authors often use the term motion parallax, I believe, to describe this effect. The authors basically set up an experiment where they would take students or other people on virtual "tours" through their robot lab, where they would have the presenter, or tour guide (who is also the experimenter), sit in a room in front of a tv with a camera, and continually cycle through 5 or so robots until the end of the tour, or experiment, was reached. The unknowing test subject would be guided through this "tour" of sorts, also sitting, or standing at different ranges, in front of a tv with a camera. After the experiment ended, the test subject would be asked to fill out a couple of questionnaires, telling the experimenters how real the experience felt, and if the changing distance from the presenter to the camera had any effect on the realism of the tour.

Shaun's opinion: I found this paper to be excruciatingly difficult to read, because the authors take a liberty in assuming the reader knows exactly what a motion parallax is, or what a media space is. They take no time to explain all the different terms that they use, leaving people ignorant of their field of work (like me) lost in the dark. After reading for a while I got the general sense of what they were talking about, but it is not reader friendly at all. Past this, however, the idea itself is interesting. Having a movable camera in a room, attached to a rod jutting out from the tv seems a bit impractical to me, but the implications that can be drawn from the experience it creates are interesting. If you approach a tv that contains the image of someone in a remote location that you are talking to, and the camera moves closer to the person, does it feel more realistic, like YOU are actually moving towards the presenter in the remote location? Most of the people who participated in the study said yes.