Placement retargeting of virtual avatars to dissimilar indoor spaces

Abstract

We present a novel mixed reality (MR) telepresence system, which enables a local user to interact with a remote user through full-body avatars in their own rooms. If the remote rooms have different size and furniture arrangement, directly applying the user’s motion to the avatar leads to mismatch of placement and deictic gesture. To overcome this problem, we retarget the placement, arm gesture and head movement of the local user to the avatar in remote room to preserve the environment and interaction context of the local user. This allows avatars to utilize real furniture and interact with the local user and shared objects as if they were in the same room. This paper describes the avatar placement algorithm and quantitative user evaluation, the design and implementation of the telepresence system in detail, and a qualitative user study for the system validation.