Work-in-progress—Avatar vs Teams: Co-Presence and Visual Behavior in a Videoconference Cooperative Task

The need for effective remote communication solutions is increasing, and videoconferencing tools are the top choice for many. Furthermore, the alternative of using avatars instead of video-based conferencing for enriching the communication process is gaining popularity. This work-in-progress presents an avatar-based remote communication system for studying the exerted sense of co-presence and visual behavior of the user compared to a popular business-oriented communication platform. Users reported a higher sense of co-presence in the avatar condition with an increase in whole visual fixations dedicated to the avatars in comparison to their video feed faces during the cooperative task.