"Interactive Spatial Copy Wall" for embodied interaction in a virtual co-existing space

A significance of a sense of togetherness or co-existence among remote communication partners has been pointed out in computer mediated communication area. In order to create such a co-existing situation, the presence of remote partners should be expressed at each place. In this paper, we propose a novel tangible human avatar display for remote interpersonal communication based on an idea integrating a video avatar expressing the fidelity of the embodiment, with a robot avatar as the physical presence. As a result, we devised "Interactive Spatial Copy Wall" ("ISCW")system which represents a three-dimensional shape of remote partners with hundreds of movable pipes and remote participants can interact with each other by operating these movable pipes. We design this system based on modularity and we construct"ISCW" system of 192 cylinder modules. At the end we discuss a possibility of this tangible avatar display when compared to the previous communication systems.