A company-office system “Valentine” providing informal communication and personal space based on 3D virtual space and avatars

Abstract

In this paper we propose a virtual office environment that integrates natural communication and secure private space. The features of this system are the following. (1) This system has a virtual shared room based on the idea of “shared room metaphor” and 3D graphics on an SGI workstation is used for this system. It uses Ethernet media (i.e. real-time audio/video streams). (2) This system implements the field of view of a human by using our “around view” technique. This provides more natural communication between members. (3) “Sound effects” are used to help users feel the presence of other members. For instance, members hear the sound of a door opening when someone logs into our system and the sound of footsteps when someone is walking around our virtual room. (4) At times our system limits the flow of awareness information. A person concentrating on his/her work may not want to perceive excessive awareness of others. To support such situation, we define “awareness space” which restricts the field where other members' awareness is transmitted. Awareness space changes in size with the degree of concentration which is measured through two factors: the movement of a chair and the frequency of keyboard typing. (5) “Headphone metaphor”. A picture of a headphone is attached above a person's image and changes color depending on the degree of concentration. This enables other members to recognize his/her state and can be a criterion as to whether he/she is available to communicate or not. (6) In the virtual space, users are represented as avatars built of 3D polygons and still pictures. The avatars change shape automatically according to the users' action.

Introduction

Recent technological advances make it possible to cooperate or communicate among distributed members by using audio, video and other media. Moreover, these technologies enable us to have a home office environment. In addition to supporting cooperative work and formal communication, such as a video conferencing system [1], [2], much attention is focused on the research of informal communication [3] and providing awareness information. Our purpose is to provide other members' awareness information at a home office and find a solution for the trade-off between providing awareness information and securing personal space.

Advantages of home offices are as follows: decreasing the population of large cities, economizing on the high cost of office space, and giving a chance to people who are not able to work outside their homes. However, the disadvantages of home offices include problems such as less communication and an exclusion from society. To avoid these problems, the home office system should support informal communication. Therefore, we have created a home office system named Valentine ($\text{v}$irtu$\text{al}$ office $\text{en}$vironment for $\text{t}$ransmitting $\text{i}$nformation of $\text{ne}$twork awareness), that enables home office workers to go to an office in 3D virtual space and work with his/her colleagues. Valentine provides a virtual shared room as a space for working and communicating. Also, the awareness of other members is provided as a trigger for communication [4].

The environment which workers can enter largely affects work efficiency. This is a very important factor to an office environment. For example, it might bother workers if too much awareness information had been given [5]. In Valentine, we have defined “awareness space” to make possible the coexistence of informal communication and workspace where workers can concentrate.

In this paper, we explain the features of our work, “awareness space” which manages the trade-off between informal communication and personal space, and “around view” and “sound effect”, techniques that provide the feeling of presence at a virtual office.