This floating avatar system integrates a blimp with a virtual avatar to create a unique system of telepresence. The blimp avatar contains several pieces of equipment, including a projector and a speaker as the output functions. Users communicate with others by presenting their facial images through the projector and voices through the speaker. A camera and microphone attached to the blimp provide the input function and support the user’s manipulation from a distance. The user’s presence is more dramatic than a conventional virtual avatar (CG and image), because the avatar is a physical object and moves freely in the real world. In addition, the user’s senses are augmented, because the blimp detects dynamic information in the real world. For example, the camera provides a special floating view to the user, and the microphone collects a wide variety of sounds such as conversations and environmental noise.
Hiroaki Tobita
Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc.
Shigeaki Maruyama
