Synchronizing Dining Progress in Video-Mediated Time-Shifted Table Talk Induces More Engagement

To the people who are difficult to have a meal together with their families or close partners because of the time-zone difference or the life-rhythm difference, asynchronous video messaging is one way to achieve time-shifted communication. This paper studies the influence of adaptive video speed control in such a video message. We propose synchronization of the video with its user in that the dining progress matches between the video person and the user. Experimental study was conducted and found that the proposed synchronization increased speech frequency, and decreased the duration of switching pauses of the user. Moreover, higher ratio of eating actions immediately after verbal responses was observed in the proposed video condition, which indicated more active commitment of the user. In total, the synchronized video induced the user become more active in the conversation with the video person.