Downsizing: The Effect of Mixed-Reality Person Representations on Stress and Presence in Telecommunication

We study how mixed-reality (MR) telepresence can enhance long-distance human interaction and how altering three-dimensional (3D) representations of a remote person can be used to modulate stress and anxiety during social interactions. To do so, we developed an MR telepresence system employing commodity depth sensors and Microsoft's Hololens. A textured, polygonal 3D model of a person was reconstructed in real time and transmitted over network for rendering in remote location using Hololens. In this pilot study, we used mock job interview paradigm to induce stress in human-subjects interacting with an interviewer presented as an MR hologram. Participants were exposed to three different types of real-time reconstructed virtual holograms of the interviewer, a natural-sized 3D reconstruction (NR), a miniature 3D reconstruction (SR) and a 2D-display representation (LCD). Participants reported their subjective experience through questionnaires, while their biophysical responses were recorded. We found that the size of 3D representation of a remote interviewer had a significant effect on participants' stress levels and their sense of presence. NR condition induced more stress and presence than SR condition and was significantly different from LCD condition.