Towards SocialVR: Evaluating a Novel Technology for Watching Videos Together
This work addresses the problem of enhancing remote social interactions for users and professionals, but it is incremental as it builds on existing SocialVR concepts with a specific platform evaluation.
The paper tackled the evaluation of a lightweight, low-cost SocialVR platform for remote video watching together, finding that end-users rated it positively for sensing emotions and effortless communication, with 15 pairs of end-users and 25 professionals participating in experiments.
Social VR enables people to interact over distance with others in real-time. It allows remote people, typically represented as avatars, to communicate and perform activities together in a join shared virtual environment, extending the capabilities of traditional social platforms like Facebook and Netflix. This paper explores the benefits and drawbacks provided by a lightweight and low-cost Social VR platform (SocialVR), in which users are captured by several cameras and reconstructed in real-time. In particular, the paper contributes with (1) the design and evaluation of an experimental protocol for Social VR experiences; (2) the report of a production workflow for this new type of media experiences; and (3) the results of experiments with both end-users (N=15 pairs) and professionals (N=25) to evaluate the potential of the SocialVR platform. Results from the questionnaires and semi-structured interviews show that end-users rated positively towards the experiences provided by the SocialVR platform, which enabled them to sense emotions and communicate effortlessly. End-users perceived the photo-realistic experience of SocialVR similar to face-to-face scenarios and appreciated this new creative medium. From a commercial perspective, professionals confirmed the potential of this communication medium and encourage further research for the adoption of the platform in the commercial landscape