User Embodiment in Collaborative Virtual Environments

This paper explores the issue of user embodiment within collaborative virtual environments. By user embodiment we mean the provision of users with appropriate body images so as to represent them to others and also to themselves. By collaborative virtual environments we mean multi-user virtual reality systems which explicitly support co-operative work (although we argue that the results of our exploration may also be applied to other kinds of collaborative system). The main part of the paper identifies a list of embodiment design issues including: presence, location, identity, activity, availability, history of activity, viewpoint, actionpoint, gesture, facial expression, voluntary versus involuntary expression, degree of presence, reflecting capabilities, physical properties, active bodies, time and change, manipulating your view of others, representation across multiple media, autonomous and distributed body parts, truthfulness and efficiency. Following this, we show how these issues...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1995
• Where: CHI
• Authors: Steve Benford, John Bowers, Lennart E. Fahlén, Chris Greenhalgh, Dave Snowdon
• Keywords: CHI 1995, Collaborative Systems, Collaborative Virtual Environments, Human Computer Interaction, User Embodiment