ABSTRACT

A proposed embodied virtual communication system provides a virtual face-to-face communication environment in which two remote talkers can share embodied interaction by observing their interaction with two types of avatars. One is VirtualActor, a human avatar that represents talker communicative motion and respiratory motion. The other is VirtualWave, an abstract avatar that expresses human behavior and respiration by simplified wave motion. By using the system for the analysis by synthesis of embodied communication, the effectiveness of the visualization of respiration in VirtualActor and VirtualWave is demonstrated by the analysis of the entrainment of interaction and the sensory evaluation in remote communication.