2008 Volume 10 Issue 4 Pages 469-478
In order to enable virtual face-to-face communication, we have developed an embodied avatar-mediated communication system by using a human avatar called Virtual Actor within the same communication space. The effectiveness of these systems has been confirmed by communication experiments. We have already proposed the concept of a Puppet Avatar in which remote talkers under the restricted conditions can operate their own avatar based on their hand motion, and developed the prototype of this system using a glove sensor. In this study, communication systems using three pointing devices‐a wireless mouse, trackball, and 3D mouse‐were developed for primitive interaction using a general PC environment. Instead of a simple trackball, a 3D trackball, which has one handle ball involving yaw rotation as well as pitch and roll rotation, was developed in order to manipulate the avatar's head motion in a more intuitive manner. A communication experiment in which a wireless mouse, trackball, and 3D mouse were compared was conducted for 15 pairs of talkers (30 in all); a sensory evaluation and analysis of embodied avatar manipulation demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed system.
