Movable cameras enhance social telepresence in media spaces

Media space is a promising but still immature technology to connect distributed sites. We developed a simple additional function that moved a remote camera forward when a local user approached a display so that the approach was amplified by a remote person's expanding image accompanied by motion parallax. We conducted an experiment in which we observed that a movable camera enhanced social telepresence, which is the feeling of facing a remote person in the same room. Despite the camera's movement, subjects believed that the camera did not move and a zoom-in function expanded the image. Surprisingly, a zoom-in camera that expanded the image as the movable camera did, however, was ineffective probably because of a lack of motion parallax. Although we explained nothing about the camera, most subjects noticed that their walking caused the view's expansion. If a remote person initiated the camera's movement, social telepresence could not be enhanced.