CHS: Small: Collaborative Research: Social Virtual Reality Technology to Improve Networked Meetings

会议对于在工作场所完成任务是必不可少的。工作场所正在采用视频会议等联网会议，以节省成本、支持多地点团队并降低大流行健康风险。然而，视频会议在支持团队沟通和连接方面受到限制。该项目探索构建社交虚拟现实(VR)技术以改进网络会议。VR以新的方式展示了作为一种支持会议的技术的前景，因为它将团队成员放在一个共享的媒体空间中，这允许使用熟悉的沟通策略(例如转向正在说话的人并用你的手打手势)。VR还允许为会议环境添加有用的增强功能，例如更改房间的外观(从会议室到休息室)，并提供易于使用的数字工具(如匿名投票或计时器)。该项目将开发社交VR工具，通过帮助参与者平衡参与、时间管理、做出决定、坚持议程以及实现社交联系和对想法的支持，来改进面对面的会议。这些创新有可能使用VR来使在线会议更有效和更令人满意。为了探讨社交虚拟现实技术如何提升网络会议，本项目将(1)在团队会议和人际沟通理论的推动下，使用研究通过设计的方法反复概念化和开发网络虚拟现实中的新技术社交增强；(2)进行受控实验室和更具生态有效性的实地研究；以及(3)为虚拟现实中的社交增强网络会议的设计开发理论和启示。该团队将建造一个可扩展的VR试验台，以实现迭代、快速的原型制作。因此，社交增强VR网络会议的预期研究贡献包括试验台、原型、实验室和关于特定社交增强的有效性、理论和设计影响的现场研究结果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Meetings are essential to getting things done in the workplace. Workplaces are adopting networked meetings, such as video conferencing, to save costs, support multi-location teams, and reduce pandemic health risks. Yet, video conferencing is limited in how it supports team communication and connection. This project explores building social virtual reality (VR) technology to improve networked meetings. VR shows promise as a technology for supporting meetings, in new ways, because it puts team members in a shared media space, which allows for familiar communication tactics (such as turning toward someone who is talking and gesturing with your hands). VR also allows adding helpful enhancements to meeting situations, such as changing how the room looks (from a boardroom to breakroom), and providing easy-to-use digital tools (such as anonymous voting or timers). This project will develop social VR tools to improve face-to-face meetings by helping participants balance participation, time manage, come to decisions, stick to an agenda, and achieve social connection and support for ideas. These innovations have the potential to use VR to make online meetings more effective and satisfying. To investigate how social VR technology can enhance networked meetings, this project will (1) use a research-through-design approach to iteratively conceptualize and develop novel technical social augmentations in networked VR, motivated by theories of team meetings and interpersonal communication; (2) perform controlled laboratory and more ecologically valid field studies; and (3) develop theory and implications for design of social augmentation networked meetings in VR. The team will build an extensible VR testbed to enable iterative, rapid prototyping. Thus, expected research contributions for socially augmented VR networked meetings include a testbed, prototypes, lab and field study findings regarding the efficacy of particular social augmentations, theory, and implications for design.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.