Virtual space teleconferencing “Communication with realistic sensations”

This paper describes a virtual space teleconferencing system as an example of a human-oriented telecommunications system. Virtual space teleconferencing at ATR involves a new paradigm called “Communication with realistic sensations”. By using this system, participants at different sites can engage in a conference with the sensation of sharing the same space. More specifically, our system connects three different sites via a 1.5 Mbps ISDN in commercial use. The system has two large screens with which real-time reproductions of 3-D whole body images of humans are achieved. Participants at the three different sites are able to feel as if they are all at one site. They can also cooperatively work through a virtual common space using a multimodal interface