In this study, we examine how remote collaborators' upper body view affects collaboration when people engage in multiparty fluid tabletop activities across distances. We experimentally investigated the effects of upper body view on four-person group tabletop collaboration, two-by-two at identical locations: shared tabletop vs. shared tabletop plus upper body view. Although previous research has often failed to illustrate the advantages of showing remote participants' upper body view, our study showed that task performance was significantly higher in conditions with upper body view. Furthermore, participants with upper body view tended to take a step away from their remote partners to effectively glance at them while taking a comparable perspective of the tabletop objects. Detailed analysis of the video recordings revealed that upper body view was effective for fluid tabletop collaboration because it helped achieve joint perspective and helped estimate the timing and rough location of subsequent tabletop activity.
['Naomi Yamashita', 'Hideaki Kuzuoka', 'Keiji Hirata', 'Shigemi Aoyagi', 'Yoshinari Shirai']
Supporting fluid tabletop collaboration across distances