Graphical Enhancements for Voice Only Conference Calls

We present two very low bandwidth graphically enhanced interfaces for small group voice communications. One interface presents static images of the participants that highlight when one is speaking. The other interface utilizes three-dimensional avatars that can be quickly created. Eleven groups of 4 or 5 people were presented with each enhanced interface as well as conducting a live conversation and a voice only conversation. Experiments show that both graphically enhanced interfaces improve the understandability of conversations, particular with respect to impressions that others in the group could express themselves more easily, knowing who is talking, and when to speak. Little difference was found between the two graphical interfaces. Analysis of voice tracks also revealed differences between interfaces in the length and number of medium duration silences.

[1]  Abigail Sellen,et al.  Remote Conversations: The Effects of Mediating Talk With Technology , 1995, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[2]  J. Cassell,et al.  Conversation as a System Framework : Designing Embodied Conversational Agents , 1999 .

[3]  M. Argyle,et al.  Gaze and Mutual Gaze , 1994, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[4]  Paul Dourish,et al.  Portholes: supporting awareness in a distributed work group , 1992, CHI.

[5]  G. D. Weeks,et al.  Studies in Interactive Communication: I. The Effects of Four Communication Modes on the Behavior of Teams During Cooperative Problem-Solving , 1972 .

[6]  E. Schegloff,et al.  A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation , 1974 .

[7]  Masood Masoodian,et al.  THE IMPACT OF HUMAN-TO-HUMAN COMMUNICATION MODES IN CSCW ENVIRONMENTS , 1994 .

[8]  Wenyu Jiang,et al.  Analysis of on-off patterns in VoIP and their effect on voice traffic aggregation , 2000, Proceedings Ninth International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (Cat.No.00EX440).

[9]  Justine Cassell,et al.  Human conversation as a system framework: designing embodied conversational agents , 2001 .

[10]  John C. Tang,et al.  Supporting distributed groups with a Montage of lightweight interactions , 1994, CSCW '94.

[11]  R. Krauss,et al.  Effects of Transmission Delay and Access Delay on the Efficiency of Verbal Communication , 1967 .

[12]  William Buxton,et al.  Telepresence: Integrating Shared Task and Person Spaces , 1992 .

[13]  Jack Whalen,et al.  Sociology as a Natural Observational Science@@@Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. , 1987 .

[14]  Judith S. Olson,et al.  Face-to-face group work compared to remote group work with and without video. , 1997 .

[15]  Anton Nijholt,et al.  Eye gaze patterns in conversations: there is more to conversational agents than meets the eyes , 2001, CHI.

[16]  Judith S. Donath,et al.  Talking in circles: designing a spatially-grounded audioconferencing environment , 2000, CHI.

[17]  S. Drucker,et al.  The Role of Eye Gaze in Avatar Mediated Conversational Interfaces , 2000 .