AR Go-Kon: A System for Facilitating a Smooth Communication in the First Meeting

This paper proposes a system for facilitating a smooth communication in the first meeting by using Augmented Reality (AR). "Go-kon" means a traditional style of a match-making party in Japan. It is one of typical situation that requires higher communication skill to all the participants. Against this problem, our system tries to minimize the communication difficulties that arise from the different communication skills of individuals, human relations, and the lack of information about interlocutors. We hope that all the shy Japanese make a better conversations by using our proposed system. We implement a new glasses that combine HD camera and a Head Mounted Display (HMD). The landscape of the real world captured by the HD camera is displayed on HMD in real time. In the intermediate processing between HD camera and HMD, our system inserts some helpful information for the communication. In addition, our system has a function for replacing participants' face to a given avatar image, like a masquerade ball. The usability and effectiveness of the system are subjectively evaluated in the actual Go-kon held in our campus. We confirm that inserted textual information can help a good communication. The avatar function is seems to be interesting, but it is not so effective for enhancing a smooth communication.