Multimodal and Multichannel Sequential Analysis of Interactional Patterns in a Simulated Tele-auscultation Experiment

Abstract

In tele-auscultation, since a doctor cannot operate an auscultator by herself, she must refer a target point by a marker and have a helper in a distant place move an auscultator by proxy. This article analyzes a simulated tele-auscultation experiment and proposes an interactional pattern observed in the process of multimodal communication from pointing by marker by a doctor, operation of an auscultator by a helper to auscultation by the doctor. This pattern is then considered in terms of division of transmission between multi-channels of a system for tele-auscultation and a tele-conference system for conversation. At the end, problems on the system environment found in the experiment are addressed.