Abstract
Various kinds of remote communication systems ranging from the high quality commercial system to free systems are getting popular these days. As a result, these systems make it possible for many people to enjoy audio/video communication over the network. However, remote communication using these systems is still not identical to face-to-face meeting due to several reasons. This study proposes an idea of connecting reemote individuals through augmented tele-presence systems called ARM-COMS: ARm-supported eMbodied COmmunication Monitor System. ARM-COMS is composed of a desktop robotic arm and a tablet PC which is attached to it. The tablet PC presents audio/video images of a remote person just as typical video conference. However, ARM-COMS controls the physical movement of the tablet PC during the video conference as if the remote person were inside of the tablet and behaved in a face-to-face conversation. ARM-COMS also considers the meaningful physical position in space to show the connection with other person or topics. This paper shows the idea of ARM-COMS and presents the preliminary experiments using one of the functions of ARM-COMS, or AEM to show the feasibility of the idea.
