Drone-Supported Video Conferencing
In collaboration with Kody Dillman, Richard Tang, Anthony Tang, Ehud Sharlin, Lora Oehlberg, Carman Neustaedter, and Scott Bateman
People are increasingly using mobile video conferencing (e.g., Skype, FaceTime, Hangouts) to communicate, collaborate, and share experiences while on the go. Yet this presents challenges in adequately sharing camera views with remote users. For this project, we studied the use of semi-autonomous drones for video conferencing, where an outdoor user (using a smartphone) is connected to a desktop user (e.g., who is at home or in an office) who can explore the environment from the drone's perspective. I designed and built a prototype system following this setup; and in collaboration with colleagues from both inside and outside my lab, we ran an observational study to see how users would interact through this setup. Our study showed that there are benefits of providing the desktop user with a view that is elevated, manipulable, and decoupled from the outdoor user. In addition, our participants overcame challenges in communicating environmental information and navigational cues, negotiated control of the view, and used the drone as a tool for sharing experiences. This provides a new way of thinking about mobile video conferencing, where cameras that are decoupled from both users play an integral role in communication, collaboration, and sharing experiences.
Publications
- Jones, B., Dillman, K., Tang, R., Tang, A., Sharlin, E., Oehlberg, L., Neustaedter, C., and Bateman, S. Elevating Communication, Collaboration, and Shared Experiences in Mobile Video through Drones. In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS 2016), ACM.
Download PDF | Watch Video | Accompanying Source Code | Publication Link - Jones, B. Elevating Communication, Collaboration, and Shared Experiences between Peers in Mobile Video Communication using Drones. MSc Thesis, University of Calgary.
Download PDF | Watch Video | Accompanying Source Code | Publication Link
Press Coverage
- CBC Spark radio interview: "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...a drone video conferencing system!" (October 2015)
- CBC Calgary news article: "Drone study looks to revolutionize video-conferencing" (August 2015)