Merging Viewpoints of User and Avatar in Automatic Control of Avatar-Mediated Communication

This paper discusses the findings on the viewpoint of an avatar-controlling user on the basis of experimentation with an implemented avatar-mediated telecommunication system. Communication using an avatar with facial expressions is useful when a user wants to express emotions. On top of this feature, our system supports automatic avatar movement toward nearest visible location to the target, which is not obvious for the avatar controller. With our system, the avatar controller can easily refer to something remotely. However, sometimes, the words of an avatar controller may not be intuitive for an avatar viewer, because the avatar controller does not necessarily share the viewpoint of the avatar. We designed full-automatic and guide-automatic methods for controlling the avatar, and we conducted an experiment to compare the two methods. The results showed that guide-automatic control was more intuitive than full-automatic control for an avatar viewer, and they have design implications for avatar-mediated telecommunication systems.