Visual feedback to reduce the negative effects of message transfer delay on voice chatting

Abstract

Voice chat system is one of the most popular communication systems using computer networks. There is considerable delay to transfer the sender's voice to the receiver on usual voice chat system. The message transfer delay often causes unintentional interruptions and makes participants of the system feel confused. It is considered that such negative effects occur because participants can't know the status of their voice playback in remote site. In this paper, two types of remote status monitoring systems are introduced to reduce unintentional interruptions and confused feeling. Then, it is confirmed experimentally that these systems were effective to reduce these problems. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.