Toward the creation of a new medium for the multimedia era

It is expected that various new types of telecommunications services will emerge based on multimedia technologies. A concept of hypercommunication is proposed that merges human communication in cyberspace involving various people in different places, different times, and even different cultures, as well as communication with human-like agents generated by computers. Technologies necessary to realize this new telecommunications concept are described along with several research examples being done at ATR Media Integration and Communications Research Laboratories.