2007 Volume 3 Pages 788-799
This paper outlines some of the benefits of providing remote users with consistent spatial referencing across sites when collaborating on physical tasks. Two video-mediated technologies are introduced: room-sized sharing that enables remote users to see similar things to what they would actually see if in the same room and a snapshot function that enables users to gesture at remote objects. We examine the impact of these technologies by comparing remote collaboration on physical tasks in a regular video conferencing system with a handy camera versus a room duplication system versus a room duplication system with a snapshot function. Results indicate that room-sized sharing facilitates remote collaborators' sense of co-presence and supports remote gesturing, which is closely aligned to normal co-present gesturing. Although such benefits did not contribute directly to the overall decrease of task performance, room-sized sharing and the snapshot function helped remote collaborators construct appropriate messages, efficiently establish joint focus, and monitor each others' comprehension when conducting complicated physical tasks.
