Previous research has demonstrated that men and women employ different speech styles that result in an uneven power dynamic. To better understand the increasingly common interactions that take place using video-mediated communication, such as Skype and Google Hangout, the present research examines these gendered patterns in video-mediated communication (VMC). Mixed-gender dyads will be formed and ask to complete a desert survival task via VMC or in person while software analyzes their use of aggressive positive, and tentative language, as well as measuring speaking time for each party. Interpersonal perception and the use of intrusive interruptions and will also be examined. Drawing from research in Social Information Processing Theory, it is expected that users compensate for the difficulties of a communication medium in order to achieve a normal interaction. As such, men are anticipated to use more intrusive interruptions, aggressive language, and speak more than women, regardless of condition. Women are anticipated to use more positive and tentative language in both VMC and face-to-face conditions. Dominant language is also expected to mediate the relationship between gender and perceived dominance. Future research should examine the effect of race in these interactions, as well as how this dynamic effects gender non-conforming persons.

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of video-mediated communication (VMC) to support couples separated during classic Satogaeri Bunben. Satogaeri Bunben refers to the Japanese tradition when a pregnant woman leaves her own home to return to her parents' home during the prenatal period, while her husband often stays behind in the couple's house. When a couple geographically live apart during Satogaeri Bunben, it may decrease father-infant attachment and the negatively impact the marital relationship. VMC was selected as the supportive intervention for couples choosing Satogaeri Bunben in this study because: 1) it provides additional visual cues, which are particularly important because Japanese communication is highly contextual and often more nonverbal than verbal, 2) the addition of visual cues allow husbands the opportunity to see their infant, because they cannot talk, and 3) Japan has one of the best broadband systems worldwide. The specific aims were to explore VMC during Satogaeri Bunben in relation to father-infant attachment and the marital relationship and to describe VMC experiences of Japanese couples separated during Satogaeri Bunben. A comparative case study design with a mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis was used. The specific mixed methods approach used was a [QUAL + quan] triangulation-convergence model. For the qualitative data, the primary source of data was the Participant Diary. The primary sources of quantitative data included three instruments: 1) Taiji Kanjyo Hyotei Syakudo (TKHS), 2) Intimate Bond Measure (IBM), and 3) Primary Communication Inventory (PCI). The PCI was translated into Japanese for this study using a committee approach. Four couples were participated in this study. Data collection for each couple took approximately two to three month to complete. Qualitative data analysis divided the couples in two groups: 1) the engaged group, who were very attentive each other's feelings and 2) the detached group, who were inattentive. The PCI scores further supported the existence of two groups. However, the TKHS and IBM scores were mixed. The limitations included a small sample size and lack of variability in sample characteristics, and short time frame. This study was also the first time to use a newly translated PCI in Japanese. This study successfully explored the use of VMC to support couples choosing Satogaeri Bunben focusing on decreasing the impact of the separation of the couple and later the separation of the husband from his new infant. The qualitative and quantitative findings provided a first glimpse into four couples' feelings and VMC experiences during Satogaeri Bunben, especially in relation to father-infant attachment and the marital relationship. The use of VMC provided ongoing virtual, rather than physical co-presence, which may help couple's communication and relationship during their separation, as they transitioned to parenthood.

Video-mediated communication (VMC) is currently the prevalent mode of telecommunication for applications such as remote collaboration, teleconferencing, and distance learning. It is generally assumed that transmitting real-time talking-head videos of participants in addition to their audio is beneficial and desirable, enabling remote conferencing to feel almost the same as face-to-face collaboration. However, compared to being face-to-face, VMC still feels distant, artificial, cumbersome, and detached. One limitation of standard video-collaboration that contributes to this feeling is that the 3D context between people and their shared workspace given in face-to-face collaboration is lost. It is therefore not possible for participants to tell from the video what others are looking at, what they are working on, or who they are talking to. Video Collaborative Virtual Environments (video-CVEs) are novel VMC interfaces which address these problems by re-introducing a virtual 3D context into which distant users are mentally "transported" to be together and interact with the environment and with each other, represented by their spatially controllable video-avatars. To date, research efforts following this approach have primarily focused on the demonstration of working prototypes. However, maturation of these systems requires a deeper understanding of human factors that emerge during mediated collaborative processes. This thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of human factors. It investigates the hypothesis that video-CVEs can effectively support face-to-face aspects of collaboration which are absent in standard video-collaboration. This hypothesis is tested in four related comparative user studies involving teams of participants collaborating in video-CVEs, through standard video-conferencing systems, and being face-to-face. The experiments apply and extend methods from the research fields of human-computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative work, and presence. Empirical findings indicate benefits of video-CVEs for user experience dimensions such as social presence and copresence, but also highlight challenges for awareness and usability that need to be overcome to unlock the full potential of this type of interface.

This investigation has been carried out at the RoyalInstitute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. The main goal hasbeen to investigate the factors determining the production of asense of presence and reality in video mediated communication.Presenceis in these studies defines as the subjectiveexperience of being together in one place when one isphysically situated in another. Presence is an emergentproperty; it has no physicality, but arises as a mentalsensation. Special attention has been paid to spatial factors,embodiment issues, and narrative elements related to theproduction of presence. A context map has been used in order to model the semanticsof presence production and to visualize the relationshipsbetween the determining factors. The conclusions may besummarized as follows:     Knowledge about physical and extended spaces and bodiesand of the shifting of attention between these is importantin presence production.     Well planned design of physical and virtual spacesenhances the sense of presence.     Coherent design and production of mediated embodiment canenhance the sense of presence.     Conscious use of content characteristics, e.g., goodstorytelling, can enhance the sense of presence.     Different communication modes need the support ofdifferent combinations of presence production factors.     Even technically poorly mediated communication maysupport a sense of presence and reality if the storytellingis good.     The human sensory environment should be supported by asense of non-mediation, technological transparency, on theplane of discourse.     The results indicate that individual differencesinfluence the sense of presence and reality. The perception of video mediated communication evolves aspeople become daily users. People seem to intuitively begin tointerpret new types of mediated cues, adding what is missing incomparison to a real time physical communicationexperience. Keywords:Telepresence, presence, social presence,co-presence, concept modeling, virtual reality, person space,task space, narration, video mediated communication, videoconferencing.

<p>This investigation has been carried out at the RoyalInstitute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. The main goal hasbeen to investigate the factors determining the production of asense of presence and reality in video mediated communication.Presenceis in these studies defines as the subjectiveexperience of being together in one place when one isphysically situated in another. Presence is an emergentproperty; it has no physicality, but arises as a mentalsensation. Special attention has been paid to spatial factors,embodiment issues, and narrative elements related to theproduction of presence.</p><p>A context map has been used in order to model the semanticsof presence production and to visualize the relationshipsbetween the determining factors. The conclusions may besummarized as follows:</p><p>    Knowledge about physical and extended spaces and bodiesand of the shifting of attention between these is importantin presence production.</p><p>    Well planned design of physical and virtual spacesenhances the sense of presence.</p><p>    Coherent design and production of mediated embodiment canenhance the sense of presence.</p><p>    Conscious use of content characteristics, e.g., goodstorytelling, can enhance the sense of presence.</p><p>    Different communication modes need the support ofdifferent combinations of presence production factors.</p><p>    Even technically poorly mediated communication maysupport a sense of presence and reality if the storytellingis good.</p><p>    The human sensory environment should be supported by asense of non-mediation, technological transparency, on theplane of discourse.</p><p>    The results indicate that individual differencesinfluence the sense of presence and reality.</p><p>The perception of video mediated communication evolves aspeople become daily users. People seem to intuitively begin tointerpret new types of mediated cues, adding what is missing incomparison to a real time physical communicationexperience.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>Telepresence, presence, social presence,co-presence, concept modeling, virtual reality, person space,task space, narration, video mediated communication, videoconferencing.</p>

Program för video-medierad kommunikation (VMK) såsom Zoom används ofta för digitala möten och anställningsintervjuer. Tekniska störningar i ljud och bild är vanligt förekommande vid VMK, men effekten av tekniska störningar vid bedömningar av individer är i stort sett okänd. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka detta kunskapsgap, utifrån frågeställningen: Är tekniska störningar under VMK relaterat till mindre positiva omdömen om individer? En hypotes ställdes upp: (H1) Individer som bedöms via VMK kommer bedömas mindre positivt när tekniska störningar förekommer i ljud och bild, jämfört med när tekniska störningar inte förekommer. En webbaserad experimentell metodansats brukades, där högskolestuderande (N = 60) fick se en två minuter lång film av en fiktiv jobbkandidat, och sedan bedöma dennes kompetens, intelligens, anställningsbarhet, etcetera. Två filmer fördelades slumpmässigt till respondenterna, varav en redigerats för att ge utseendet avtekniska störningar i ljud och bild. Kontrollgruppen (n = 33) fick se den icke-manipulerade filmversionen, och experimentgruppen (n = 27) den manipulerade versionen. Data analyserades med oberoende t-test och ANCOVA. Egenkonstruerade frågor inspirerade av Baker m.fl. (2020) och Schroeder och Epley (2015) brukades för att mäta bedömningar och Mini-IPIP6 för att kunna kontrollera för personlighet. Resultaten visade att kandidaten bedömdes mindre positivt (d = 0.46, p = .10) när tekniska störningar förekom, jämfört med när de inte gjorde det, vilket ligger i linje med H1. När övriga variabler kontrollerats för framträdde att merparten av förklarad varians i bedömningar förklarades av kön, välvillighet och självrapporterad uppmärksamhet. Praktiska implikationer för rekryteringar diskuteras. / Programs for video-mediated communication (VMC) such as Zoom are commonly used for digital meetings and job interviews. Technical difficulties frequently occur in VMC, but its effect for assessments of others is largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate this knowledge gap, and to answer the question: Are technical difficulties related to less positive assessments of others? It is hypothesised that individuals who are assessed via VMC will receive less positive assessments when technical difficulties are present, as compared to when they aren’t (H1). A digital experiment was conducted, where university students (N = 60) were shown a two-minute video of a fictitious job candidate. Two versions of the same video were randomly assigned to the respondents, one of which had been edited to give the appearance of technical difficulties with disturbances and distortions in sound and video. The control group (n = 33) was shown the unmanipulated video version, and the experiment group (n = 27) the manipulated version. The respondents assessed the job candidate on qualities such as competency, intelligence, hireability, etcetera, using survey items inspired by Baker et al. (2020), and Schroeder and Epley (2015). Data were analyzed using an independent samples t-test, and the instrument Mini-IPIP6 was used so that personality could be controlled for using ANCOVA. Results showed that assessments of the candidate were less positive (d = 0.46, p = .10) when technical difficulties were present, confirming H1. Results from an ANCOVA showed that gender, agreeableness, and selfreported attention were significant predictors of assessments and predicted the outcome better than technical difficulties. Implications for practice are discussed.

Two common problems in Remote Guidance applications include the remote guides lack of direct control over their view into the worker’s physical environment and the difficulties that arise with trying to place virtual 3D objects in a real 3D environment,via a moving, shaky, 2D image.The first issue can be called a lack of remote spatial awareness, the guide can see only what the worker enables them to see. In the worst case the guide is rendered blind to the task environment while the worker is unable to use their device. A common occurrence is tasks that require both hands.The second issue arises from the inherent difficulty present in trying to correctly place a 3D object using only a limited perspective. Camera shake and unreliable tracking of the physical environment being depicted only further add to this problem. Studies show that 3D annotations make for much more effective means of communication, especially in 3D task environments. Allowing the guide some measure of control over their own view has also been shown to improve the guides ability to aid their partner. This paper investigates a method of Remote Guidance where the task of environment tracking and object placement are separated. A prototype application is developed and tested against a baseline 2D-annotation Remote Guidance tool. The study finds the prototype to be an effective way of placing virtual 3D objects in a remote environment. Experimental results show that communication is indeed made better by the inclusion of 3D objects into Remote Guidance. This comes at the cost of a slight increase in the timetaken to complete a task as the complexity of the 3D tool is greater than the 2D one. Unfortunately, the experiment performed fails to properly account for remote spatial awareness.

Parents and children increasingly spend time living apart due to marital separation and work travel. I investigated parent--child separation in both of these contexts to find that current technologies frequently do not meet the needs of families. The telephone is easy-to-use and ubiquitous but does not provide an engaging way of communicating with children. Videochat is more emotionally expressive and has a greater potential for engagement but is difficult to set up and cannot be used by a child without the help of an adult. Both telephone and videochat fail to meet the needs of remote parenting because they focus on conversation rather than care and play activities, which are the mechanism by which parents and children build closeness. I also saw that in both types of separation the motivation to connect at times conflicted with desire to reduce disruption of the remote household. To address some of these issues, I designed a system called the ShareTable, which provides easy-to-initiate videochat with a shared tabletop activity space. After an initial lab-based evaluation confirmed the promise of this approach, I deployed the ShareTable to four households (two sets of divorced families). I collected data about the families' remote interactions before and during the deployment. Remote communication more than doubled for each of these families while using the ShareTable and I saw a marked increase in the number of communication sessions initiated by the child. The ShareTable provided benefits over previous communication systems and supported activities that are impossible with other currently available technologies. One of the biggest successes of the system was in providing an overlapped video space that families appropriated to communicate metaphorical touch and a sense of closeness. However, the ShareTable also introduced a new source of conflict for parents and challenged the families as they tried to develop practices of using the system that would be acceptable to all involved. The families' approach to these challenges as well as explicit feedback about the system informs future directions for synchronous communication systems for separated families.