Large screen teleconferencing-a compelling form of personal presence via interactive television

Bellcore's large-screen teleconferencing prototype is a significant step in the direction of lifelike teleconferencing. It realizes a good part of a service concept for easy, informal video and audio communication, augmented with visual aids and shared computer applications. Users of this prototype describe it as comfortable and almost as though the conference participants were in the same room. This presentation describes the audio and video systems of the prototype and the subjective reactions of users. We also describe several experimental enhancements of the basic audio/visual system to support sharing of images and computer applications. Most experience to date has been with point-to-point applications, but we also discuss considerations for multipoint implementations and the desirable characteristics of multipoint control units. As technology opens new possibilities for interpersonal communication, large-screen teleconferencing has emerged as a fruitful approach to achieving greater naturalness for both formal and informal group interactions. Multimedia facilities and tools add to its usefulness. As networking, coding and display technologies evolve, this form of interaction should be attractive for a wide range of business, professional, educational and personal applications, some of which are described. Large-screen teleconferencing could become a window to the world from the homes, offices and classrooms of the future.