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 "name": "An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations",
 "author": [
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Tom Cashman"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Tim Hutton"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Martin de La Gorce"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Tibor Takács"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Antonio Criminisi"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Milica Ðorđević"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Goran Dubajić"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Ðorđe Marjanović"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Milena Okošanović"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Vukašin Ranković"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Ivan Razumenić"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Bojan Roško"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Teo Šarkić"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Marko Skakun"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Miloš Stojanović"
  },
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   "name": "Nikola Veličković"
  },
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   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Predrag Jovanović"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Payod Panda"
  },
  {
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   "name": "Lev Tankelevitch"
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 "datePublished": "2024-05",
 "doi": "10.1145/3613905.3650903",
 "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/an-equal-seat-at-the-table-exploring-videoconferencing-with-shared-spatial-context-combined-with-3d-video-representations.html",
 "citation": "Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI EA 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903",
 "bibtex": "@inproceedings{cashman2024an,\nauthor = {Cashman, Tom and Hutton, Tim and de La Gorce, Martin and Takács, Tibor and Criminisi, Antonio and Ðorđević, Milica and Dubajić, Goran and Marjanović, Ðorđe and Okošanović, Milena and Ranković, Vukašin and Razumenić, Ivan and Roško, Bojan and Šarkić, Teo and Skakun, Marko and Stojanović, Miloš and Veličković, Nikola and Jovanović, Predrag and Panda, Payod and Tankelevitch, Lev and Rintel, Sean},\ntitle = {An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations},\nbooktitle = {CHI EA 2024},\nyear = {2024},\nmonth = {May},\npublisher = {ACM},\nurl = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903},\ndoi = {10.1145/3613905.3650903},\n}",
 "abstract": "Work video meetings in the traditional grid interface have inclusion,effectiveness, and fatigue problems, due in part to the difficulty ofdirecting or communicating attention. Virtual 3D meeting spaceshave value, but representing people in them is a challenge. Avatarsface resistance, and 2D video is limited to near-frontal views, constraining the spatial layout. We present a novel experimental systemfor virtual meeting rooms that predicts 3D video of users in real-time from a standard webcam, positions them in a shared 3D space,and renders a controllable first-person view. We report study results comparing this system to a traditional grid, and to 2D videoof people in the same 3D space. While spatial layouts fared better in terms of attention and co-presence, the traditional grid wasmore comfortable and professional. This is likely due to unsettled3D design, the need for manual control, and a preference for thefamiliar.",
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 "fullTextAvailable": true,
 "takeaway": "Video meetings can convey attention better with shared space. Seated around one virtual table as live 3D video, people scored higher than in a grid on shared space and attention. Yet most preferred the familiar grid, likely because the 3D design was unsettled and needed manual control.",
 "whyItMatters": {
  "stateOfTheArt": {
   "summary": "Grid video meetings make it hard to direct and communicate attention, and virtual 3D meeting spaces that could help struggle to represent the people in them.",
   "quote": "Avatars face resistance, and 2D video is limited to near-frontal views, constraining the spatial layout.",
   "location": "Abstract, p. 1"
  },
  "contribution": {
   "summary": "Earlier spatial meeting systems used flat video cutouts, avatars or special hardware. The authors turn each person into live 3D video from one standard webcam and seat everyone in a shared virtual room. The authors then test it in group meetings against flat video in the same room and a standard grid.",
   "quote": "Views can be rendered in real-time from a wide range of viewpoints for many-to-many communication.",
   "location": "§1, p. 1"
  },
  "whoCares": {
   "summary": "Designers and researchers of videoconferencing and virtual meeting spaces, for whom the authors see a payoff despite the mixed results:",
   "quote": "live 3D video in virtual meeting spaces holds great potential for reducing fatigue and improving inclusion and effectiveness in remote meetings",
   "location": "§1, p. 2"
  }
 },
 "researchQuestions": [
  "RQ1: Can we capture 3D views of people using commodity webcams and render them in a 3D virtual environment?",
  "RQ2: What advantages does user-controlled view direction confer for focusing user attention, and conveying direction of attention to other users?",
  "RQ3: Are there advantages to a 3D video representation of users in the 3D virtual environment?"
 ],
 "concepts": [
  {
   "term": "Spatiality",
   "definition": "The paper's opening premise, and what grid interfaces take away:",
   "quote": "Space is not just where we talk, it's also a part of talk.",
   "location": "§1, p. 1"
  },
  {
   "term": "Hypergaze and flattening",
   "definition": "A term from Bailenson's account of video-call fatigue, summarised here as one problem of the video grid:",
   "quote": "Hypergaze and flattening [2] are the subjective configuration of all meetings as presentations, leaving users feeling stared at and where people look as not representing true focus of attention.",
   "location": "§2, p. 2"
  },
  {
   "term": "3D video from a single webcam",
   "definition": "Each person becomes live 3D geometry that can be viewed from many angles, using one ordinary webcam. The key step, for each frame:",
   "quote": "pass the ROI to a feedforward convolutional neural network (CNN) that predicts depth for each image pixel, as well as a segmentation of the ROI into foreground and background regions",
   "location": "§3, p. 3"
  },
  {
   "term": "User-controlled first-person view",
   "definition": "Each participant turns their view with the arrow keys, and their rendered orientation turns for everyone else too, signalling where they are looking.",
   "quote": "This rotation was also reflected for remote participants, where each user was rendered with an orientation which matched their own firstperson perspective view",
   "location": "§3, p. 4"
  }
 ],
 "method": {
  "design": "Within-subjects experiment with three conditions: (A) a traditional 2D videoconferencing grid, (B) 3D video of each person in a shared 3D room, and (C) 2D video of each person in the same room. In each condition groups counted from 1 to 20 in turn, then held a five minute decision-making discussion, then completed a survey. Sessions ended with a recorded demonstration of higher-quality 3D video.",
  "prototype": "A videoconferencing system that runs on a standard PC with one ordinary webcam. For each webcam frame it finds the user's face, and a neural network predicts the depth of every pixel and separates the person from the background. The colour and depth are streamed to the others, whose computers turn them into a live 3D figure. Each person sees a first-person view of a simple virtual room with everyone seated around a hexagonal table, and turns their view left or right with the arrow keys. The others see their figure turn too. Audio is spatial, through stereo headphones, and parts of the body the camera cannot see are filled with a stylised 'projector' effect. It is built with WebRTC streaming and the Unity engine, and runs at almost 30 frames per second on a high-end graphics card. It was compared with a standard video grid and with flat 2D video placed in the same room.",
  "prototypeFigure": 1,
  "setting": "One-hour experimental sessions at a global technology company, each participant at their own PC and webcam.",
  "sample": "48 participants (37 males and 11 females) in 8 groups of 6.",
  "n": 48,
  "duration": "One-hour sessions.",
  "analysis": "Survey items (5-point Likert scale) compared between conditions with Kruskal-Wallis tests and pairwise Wilcoxon rank-sum follow-ups, treated as independent samples. Illustrated with participants' open-text comments."
 },
 "findings": [
  {
   "headline": "A shared room felt like one.",
   "summary": "Groups of six colleagues met in a shared virtual room, seated around a table. They rated it higher than a standard video grid on every sense-of-shared-space item, whether people appeared as flat or 3D video. 3D video added only to the sense that people took up physical space.",
   "quote": "felt like a more natural interaction around a table",
   "location": "§5, p. 5",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/an-equal-seat-at-the-table-exploring-videoconferencing-with-shared-spatial-context-combined-with-3d-video-representations.html#at-s5-p-5",
   "cite": "Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI EA 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903 (§5, p. 5)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Easier to tell who looks at whom.",
   "summary": "In the shared room, where each person turned their own view and the others saw them turn, participants knew better than in the grid when others were looking at them or at each other. Ratings did not differ significantly between flat and 3D video, though some comments favoured 3D.",
   "quote": "it was hard to tell the direction people were facing in [2D video] compared with [3D video]",
   "location": "§5, p. 5",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/an-equal-seat-at-the-table-exploring-videoconferencing-with-shared-spatial-context-combined-with-3d-video-representations.html#at-s5-p-5-2",
   "cite": "Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI EA 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903 (§5, p. 5)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Fewer awkward pauses.",
   "summary": "The grid produced more awkward pauses than either shared-room version, and was worse than the room with flat video for knowing when someone wanted to speak. Other conversation-flow ratings did not differ significantly.",
   "quote": "if [they're] about to interrupt someone, who's where or if someone wants to talk or not",
   "location": "§5, p. 5",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/an-equal-seat-at-the-table-exploring-videoconferencing-with-shared-spatial-context-combined-with-3d-video-representations.html#at-s5-p-5-3",
   "cite": "Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI EA 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903 (§5, p. 5)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "But the grid was more comfortable.",
   "summary": "Participants rated the grid more comfortable and less distracting than both shared-room versions. In the room they could see only a few others at once and had to turn with the arrow keys, and the live 3D video flickered with visible artifacts.",
   "quote": "in real life you just turn your head or even just eyes and you can cover all persons sitting in same room",
   "location": "§5, p. 5",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/an-equal-seat-at-the-table-exploring-videoconferencing-with-shared-spatial-context-combined-with-3d-video-representations.html#at-s5-p-5-4",
   "cite": "Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI EA 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903 (§5, p. 5)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Most still chose the grid.",
   "summary": "Asked which interface they preferred overall, a majority (26 of 48) chose the standard grid, often as more appropriate for business. Flat video in the shared room came second, which some saw as a workable compromise.",
   "quote": "best of both compromise with current capabilities",
   "location": "§5, pp. 6–7",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/an-equal-seat-at-the-table-exploring-videoconferencing-with-shared-spatial-context-combined-with-3d-video-representations.html#at-s5-pp-6-7",
   "cite": "Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI EA 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903 (§5, pp. 6–7)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Quality, more than 3D itself, seems to be the hurdle.",
   "summary": "Live 3D video was not preferred over flat video in the shared room. But participants preferred a higher-quality recorded 3D demonstration over all three live interfaces, suggesting that the quality of 3D video is what holds it back.",
   "quote": "I wished the 2D was 3D but without the distracting shaders/effects",
   "location": "§5, p. 5",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/an-equal-seat-at-the-table-exploring-videoconferencing-with-shared-spatial-context-combined-with-3d-video-representations.html#at-s5-p-5-5",
   "cite": "Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI EA 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903 (§5, p. 5)"
  }
 ],
 "questions": [
  {
   "question": "Why might video meetings need a sense of shared space?",
   "answer": "In person, space is a resource for talk. Where people sit and face shows who is attending to whom and who may speak next. One shared virtual table restored some of this, helping people tell who was looking at whom, with fewer awkward pauses than a grid.",
   "source": "Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI EA 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§5, p. 5",
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    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Do people prefer 3D video meeting rooms to the normal video grid?",
   "answer": "Not yet. In group meetings, most people preferred the familiar grid, finding it more comfortable, less distracting and more businesslike. Having to turn their view to see others, and artifacts in the live 3D video, counted against the shared room.",
   "source": "Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI EA 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903",
   "basedOn": [
    {
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    },
    {
     "location": "§5, pp. 6–7",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/an-equal-seat-at-the-table-exploring-videoconferencing-with-shared-spatial-context-combined-with-3d-video-representations.html#at-s5-pp-6-7"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Is 3D video of people better than flat video in a virtual meeting room?",
   "answer": "Only for the sense that people took up physical space, and flat video was rated more business-appropriate. On conversational factors the two were judged similarly, and more people preferred flat video. A higher-quality recorded 3D demonstration was preferred over everything, so 3D video quality seems to be the limit.",
   "source": "Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI EA 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§5, p. 5",
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    },
    {
     "location": "§5, p. 5",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/an-equal-seat-at-the-table-exploring-videoconferencing-with-shared-spatial-context-combined-with-3d-video-representations.html#at-s5-p-5-5"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Can an ordinary webcam produce live 3D video of a person?",
   "answer": "Yes, roughly. In each webcam frame, a neural network predicts depth and separates the person from the background. This let the authors stream live 3D video for many-to-many meetings on a standard PC. But people noticed flicker and artifacts, especially when they saw a person from the side.",
   "source": "Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI EA 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903",
   "basedOn": [
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     "location": "§5, p. 5",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/an-equal-seat-at-the-table-exploring-videoconferencing-with-shared-spatial-context-combined-with-3d-video-representations.html#at-s5-p-5-5"
    }
   ]
  }
 ],
 "cites": [
  {
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/perspectives-creating-inclusive-and-equitable-hybrid-meeting-experiences.html",
   "title": "Perspectives: Creating Inclusive and Equitable Hybrid Meeting Experiences",
   "location": "p. 8"
  }
 ],
 "quantitative": [
  {
   "measure": "Shared understanding of who was next to whom, effect of condition",
   "value": "H = 89.41, p < 0.001",
   "location": "§5, pp. 4–5"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Knowing when others were looking at me, effect of condition",
   "value": "H = 37.6, p < 0.001",
   "location": "§5, p. 5"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Awkward pauses, effect of condition",
   "value": "H = 14.14, p = 0.001",
   "location": "§5, p. 5"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Felt present with the other people, effect of condition",
   "value": "p = 0.759 (no significant effect)",
   "location": "§5, p. 5"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Comfortable meeting experience, effect of condition (grid better)",
   "value": "H = 30.38, p < 0.001",
   "location": "§5, p. 5"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Overall preference: grid / 2D video in 3D space / 3D video in 3D space",
   "value": "26 people [54%] / 13 people [27%] / 9 people [18%]",
   "location": "§5, pp. 5–6"
  }
 ],
 "implications": [
  {
   "summary": "The 3D spatial conditions scored no lower than the grid on knowing when others wanted to speak, which the authors take to mean they kept conversational cues typically absent with avatars (avatars were not tested).",
   "quote": "indicating that the 3D videoconferencing conditions were able to preserve conversational cues that are typically absent with avatar-based systems",
   "location": "§6, p. 7"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Controlling view direction creates a tension. A wider field of view would remove friction, but it would also remove the attention signal that turning provides.",
   "quote": "widening the field of view for participants would remove the reason for participants to change their first-person perspective view to attend to different parts of the scene",
   "location": "§6, p. 7"
  },
  {
   "summary": "The quality of 3D video is key for its acceptability and usefulness in shared 3D spaces.",
   "quote": "further suggesting that the quality of 3D video is key for acceptability and utility in shared 3D spaces",
   "location": "§6, p. 7"
  }
 ],
 "limitations": [
  {
   "summary": "Condition order was not counterbalanced, and survey responses could not be linked across conditions, so tests assumed independent samples and quantitative results need caution.",
   "quote": "Due to technical constraints and time, condition order was not counterbalanced across participants.",
   "location": "§4, p. 4"
  },
  {
   "summary": "The live 3D representations had known quality limitations (flicker and artifacts).",
   "quote": "A key issue with the 3D representations in the live setting was their limited quality.",
   "location": "§5, p. 5"
  },
  {
   "summary": "The authors did not directly compare with avatar representations.",
   "quote": "We did not directly compare to avatar representations in this study",
   "location": "§6, p. 7"
  }
 ],
 "figures": [
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/an-equal-seat-at-the-table-exploring-videoconferencing-with-shared-spatial-context-combined-with-3d-video-representations/fig-4.webp",
   "caption": "Figure 4: 95% confidence intervals for the mean score of participant agreement with the statements listed. Each of the 48 participants completed a survey immediately after completing a task in each of the three conditions, and reported their agreement with the statements using a 5-point Likert scale. The three last statements are shown separately to aid interpretation, as agreement to these statements is associated with a negative meeting experience.",
   "alt": "Confidence-interval bars for each survey statement across three conditions. The 2D grid scores lower on shared space and knowing who is looking, and higher on comfort and business appropriateness, than the two 3D-space conditions.",
   "location": "Fig. 4, p. 6",
   "credit": "Figure 4 from Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI EA 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903"
  },
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/an-equal-seat-at-the-table-exploring-videoconferencing-with-shared-spatial-context-combined-with-3d-video-representations/fig-1.webp",
   "caption": "Figure 1: Our prototype videoconferencing system predicts 3D geometry corresponding to each user's regular camera feed, and positions all users in a coherent 3D virtual space that is rendered from a first-person perspective. Note: We obtained explicit permission from colleagues who were not study participants to include their images in this paper, because showing relative mutual orientation of the 3D representations in the prototypes is crucial to understanding the research.",
   "alt": "Four panels: a person at a desk with an ordinary webcam, and first-person views of a virtual meeting space where colleagues appear as 3D video figures around them.",
   "location": "Figure 1, p. 2",
   "credit": "Figure 1 from Tom Cashman, Tim Hutton, Martin de La Gorce, Tibor Takács, Antonio Criminisi, Milica Ðorđević, Goran Dubajić, Ðorđe Marjanović, Milena Okošanović, Vukašin Ranković, Ivan Razumenić, Bojan Roško, Teo Šarkić, Marko Skakun, Miloš Stojanović, Nikola Veličković, Predrag Jovanović, Payod Panda, Lev Tankelevitch, and Sean Rintel. 2024. An Equal Seat at the Table: Exploring Videoconferencing with Shared Spatial Context combined with 3D Video Representations. CHI EA 2024. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613905.3650903"
  }
 ],
 "pageNumbersReferTo": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/an-equal-seat-at-the-table-exploring-videoconferencing-with-shared-spatial-context-combined-with-3d-video-representations.pdf",
 "verified": "2026-10-25",
 "studyFigure": {
  "about": "The opening figure on this paper's page, made for the site with AI assistance from this verified brief. It is not the paper's own figure. Evidence entries index this file's quantitative, findings and limitations arrays.",
  "study": {
   "kind": "comparison",
   "summary": "Within-subjects experiment with 48 colleagues at a global technology company, in 8 groups of 6. Each group used all three interfaces in the same order, holding a short decision discussion and answering a survey in each.",
   "columns": [
    "People appeared as",
    "Seated in",
    "Looking around"
   ],
   "groups": [
    {
     "name": "Video grid",
     "n": 48,
     "cells": [
      "Flat webcam video",
      "A grid of video tiles",
      "A fixed grid view"
     ],
     "nLabel": "all 48 people"
    },
    {
     "name": "3D video room",
     "n": 48,
     "cells": [
      "Live 3D video",
      "One virtual room around a table",
      "Turned the view with arrow keys"
     ],
     "highlight": [
      0,
      1,
      2
     ],
     "nLabel": "all 48 people"
    },
    {
     "name": "Flat video room",
     "n": 48,
     "cells": [
      "Flat webcam video",
      "One virtual room around a table",
      "Turned the view with arrow keys"
     ],
     "highlight": [
      1,
      2
     ],
     "nLabel": "all 48 people"
    }
   ],
   "after": {
    "label": "End of session: recorded 3D demonstration",
    "note": "Higher quality 3D video, compared with the three live interfaces"
   }
  },
  "tool": {
   "heading": "The system",
   "steps": [
    {
     "title": "Film with one webcam",
     "text": "Each person sits at their own PC with one ordinary webcam."
    },
    {
     "title": "Predict depth",
     "text": "For each frame, a neural network finds the face, predicts every pixel's depth and separates the person from the background.",
     "part": true
    },
    {
     "title": "Rebuild in 3D",
     "text": "Colour and depth are streamed to the others, whose computers turn them into a live 3D figure.",
     "part": true
    },
    {
     "title": "Sit at one table",
     "text": "Each person sees a first-person view of a virtual room, with everyone seated around a hexagonal table.",
     "part": true
    },
    {
     "title": "Turn to look",
     "text": "Arrow keys turn a person's view left or right, and the others see that person's figure turn too.",
     "part": true
    }
   ],
   "note": "Audio is spatial, through stereo headphones. Parts of the body the camera cannot see are filled with a stylised projector effect."
  },
  "findings": {
   "legend": "comparison",
   "stages": [
    {
     "title": "Shared space and attention",
     "sub": "each virtual room compared with the video grid",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "up",
       "text": "3D video room: people reported a stronger sense of shared space than in the grid.",
       "detail": "Self-reported on 5-point scales. The flat video room also beat the grid on every shared space item. 3D video added only a sense that people took up physical space.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[0]",
        "quantitative[0]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "up",
       "text": "3D video room: people reported knowing better when others were looking at them.",
       "detail": "Self-reported. The flat video room also beat the grid. Flat and 3D video did not differ reliably, though some comments favoured 3D.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[1]",
        "quantitative[1]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "up",
       "text": "3D video room: people reported fewer awkward pauses than in the grid.",
       "detail": "Self-reported. The flat video room also had fewer. Other ratings of conversation flow did not differ reliably.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[2]",
        "quantitative[2]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "flat",
       "text": "3D video room: people reported feeling about as present with others as in the grid.",
       "detail": "Self-reported. No reliable difference across the three interfaces, p = 0.759.",
       "evidence": [
        "quantitative[3]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    },
    {
     "title": "Comfort and preference",
     "sub": "how each interface felt to use, and which people chose",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "down",
       "text": "3D video room: people rated it less comfortable than the grid.",
       "detail": "Self-reported. The flat video room was also rated less comfortable. In both rooms people saw only a few others at once, and live 3D video flickered.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[3]",
        "quantitative[4]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Video grid: 26 of 48 people preferred it overall, often as more fitting for business.",
       "detail": "The flat video room came second with 13 people and the 3D video room third with 9. Interfaces came in a fixed order, so results need caution.",
       "evidence": [
        "quantitative[5]",
        "findings[4]",
        "limitations[0]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "3D video room: people did not prefer live 3D video over flat video in the room.",
       "detail": "People preferred a higher quality recorded 3D demonstration over all three live interfaces. The authors suggest video quality is what holds 3D video back.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[5]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    }
   ],
   "legendText": "↑ better than in the video grid   ↓ worse   – no reliable difference"
  },
  "keyTerm": "spatiality",
  "takeaway": "Live 3D video of each person, seated around one virtual table, can bring spatiality to fully remote video meetings, showing who is attending to whom. People may prefer it when the video is clear and looking around is easy."
 }
}