Comparing Video, Avatar, and Robot Mediated Communication: Pros and Cons of Embodiment

In recent years, studies have begun on robot conferencing as a new telecommunication medium. In robot conferencing, people talk with a remote conversation partner through teleoperated robots which present the bodily mo- tions of the partner with a physical embodiment. However, the effects of physi- cal embodiment on distant communication had not yet been demonstrated. In this study, to find the effects, we conducted an experiment in which subjects talked with a partner through robots and various existing communication media (e.g. voice, avatar and video chats). As a result, we found that the physical em- bodiment enhanced social telepresence, i.e., the sense of resembling face-to- face interaction. Furthermore, the result implied that physical embodiment built the sense of tension as in the case of a first face-to-face meeting.

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