Development of video chat system based on space sharing and haptic communication

Abstract

Video chat is a communication tool widely used by people who live in distant locations. However, there are some differences between video chat communication and real world communication. To enhance the reality of video chat communication, we propose a novel video chat system that enables space sharing and haptic communication. To actualize these functions, the system extracts human regions from video camera images and synthesizes the regions onto a common background image. In addition, the system gives haptic feedback by activating the vibration of a smart watch the user wears when a collision occurs in the virtual shared space. We empirically evaluated the system to confirm the effectiveness and limitation of the functions of space sharing and haptic feedback. From experimental results, we confirmed that users were able to enjoy communication with the space sharing function. In addition, owing to the haptic feedback, users were able to naturally communicate with others in the virtual shared space.