Adding Another Communication Channel to Reality: An Experience with a Chat-Augmented Conference

Abstract

This paper reports our recent experience with a 3-day technical conference, which was fully augmented by a chat system and a telepresence camera. In this trial, the chat acted as a sub-channel to reality; participants both in local and remote conference roorm can freely interchange their thoughts or opinions inspired by presentations through the chat. We observed several interactions between virtual (chat) and real discussions during the conference - namely, (1) Chat discussions often activated discussions in the real world, while treating tiny questions, (2) Co-authors could provide supplemental information through the chat while the first author was presenting, and (3) Participants who were not familiar with the research topic could get more understanding from the chat. We also observed the effect of anthropomorphic representation by switching the chat system between text- and comic-based.