Mobile video conferencing, where one or more participants are moving about in the real world, enables entirely new interaction scenarios (e.g., asking for help to construct or repair an object, or showing a physical location). While we have a good understanding of the challenges of video conferencing in office or home environments, we do not fully understand the mechanics of camera work-how people use mobile devices to communicate with one another-during mobile video calls. To provide an understanding of what people do in mobile video collaboration, we conducted an observational study where pairs of participants completed tasks using a mobile video conferencing system. Our analysis suggests that people use the camera view deliberately to support their interactions-for example, to convey a message or to ask questions-but the limited field of view, and the lack of camera control can make it a frustrating experience.
Brennan Jones, Anna Witcraft, Scott Bateman, Carman Neustaedter, Anthony Tang. Mechanics of Camera Work in Mobile Video Collaboration. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '15). ACM, New York, NY, USA Page: 1-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702345