Multiscale communication

Video communication systems are most often used for short, synchronous and highly-engaged face-to-face interactions. Previous work on mediaspaces has demonstrated the potential value of long-term video links for casual awareness and informal interaction. Yet, few video systems manage to effectively support both general awareness and face-to-face interactions. As a notable exception, MirrorSpace provides users with simple ways of choosing the level of engagement that best suits their needs from a continuous set of possibilities. I believe this notion of variable degree of engagement is a particularly important one for mediated communication and that we should develop what I call multiscale communication systems [1, 2].

As part of a research project funded by France Télécom R&D between 2005 and 2008, Sofiane Gueddana and myself have designed a series of domestic communication systems based on this multiscale approach [3]. Pêle-Mêle [4] is the first prototype we developed. It is a multiparty video communication system that combines simple computer vision techniques, spatial and temporal filtering of the video streams and an original layout to support a variable degree of engagement. Using both asynchronous and synchronous mechanisms, Pêle-Mêle supports different forms of communication ranging from casual awareness to focused face-to-face interactions. This video (22 Mb) shows an early version of the system. The use of a later version of the system over a long period of time got us interested in the effect of communication pace on attention allocation, which we also studied in a more controlled context [5, 6].

References

[1] N. Roussel and S. Gueddana. Beyond "Beyond being there": towards multiscale communication systems. In Proceedings of ACM Multimedia 2007, pages 238-246, September 2007. ACM. [ACM] [Google]

[2] N. Roussel. Nouvelles formes de communication et nouvelles interactions homme-machine pour enrichir et simplifier le quotidien. Habilitation à diriger des recherches, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, Décembre 2007. 171 pages. [Google]

[3] S. Gueddana and N. Roussel. Designing new communication systems for the home. Position paper, InteractiveSpaces workshop on Imagining Domestic Interiors, Århus (Denmark), January 2008. 3 pages. [Google]

[4] S. Gueddana and N. Roussel. Pêle-Mêle, a video communication system supporting a variable degree of engagement. In Proceedings of ACM CSCW'06 Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, pages 423-426, November 2006. ACM. [ACM] [Google]

[5] S. Gueddana and N. Roussel. Pêle-mêle, une étude de la communication multi-échelles. In Proceedings of IHM 2009, 21ème conférence francophone sur l'Interaction Homme-Machine, pages 273-282, Octobre 2009. ACM, International Conference Proceedings Series. [ACM] [Google]

[6] S. Gueddana and N. Roussel. Effect of peripheral communication pace on attention allocation in a dual-task situation. In Proceedings of the INTERACT 2009 Conference, volume 5727 of LNCS, pages 111-124, August 2009. Springer. [Springer] [Google]