Multimedia Montage—Counterpoint Synthesis of Movies

This paper proposes the video avatar, an avatar with embedded video of the human body in a collaborative virtual environment. The video avatar enables visual communication between avatars. The video avatar has three features for enhancing visual communication. The target object function and the comment function enhance the gesture of the avatar. These functions integrate the embedded video and the virtual objects in the virtual space. The multiple video mechanism enhances the identification of the avatar. This mechanism displays the embedded video with a three-dimensional figure. This paper also describes the prototype system of the video avatar and our experience in the exhibition. Our experience shows that the visual communication provided by the video avatar is effective for guiding the user in the large-scaled virtual space.

[1]  Ken Sakamura,et al.  Design and implementation of the browser for the multimedia multi-user dungeon of the digital museum , 1998, Proceedings. 3rd Asia Pacific Computer Human Interaction (Cat. No.98EX110).

[2]  Toru Ishida,et al.  FreeWalk: supporting casual meetings in a network , 1996, International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques.

[3]  Brian Christopher Smith,et al.  CU-SeeMe VR immersive desktop teleconferencing , 1997, MULTIMEDIA '96.

[4]  Rudy Darken.  Wayfinding in large-scale virtual worlds , 1995, CHI '95.

[5]  K. Sakamura.  TRON and the Digital Museum , 1996, Proceedings 13th TRON Project International Symposium /TEPS '96.

[6]  Yoshio Nagashima,et al.  InterSpace: Networked Virtual World for Visual Communication , 1994 .

[7]  Ken Sakamura,et al.  A multimedia MUD system for the digital museum , 1998, Proceedings. 3rd Asia Pacific Computer Human Interaction (Cat. No.98EX110).