Virtual Presence Indication

Keywords: Virtual Presence, Formal/ Informal Collaboration, Ambient Displays

Guide: Asst. Prof. Manoj Majhi, IIT Guwahati
Duration: August 2012 - February 2013

Project Description
The aim of the project is creating a Distributed Virtual Environment with Virtual Presence Indicators, for a sense of sharing and mutual presence indication between geographically distributed groups.

Work Done
Virtual Presence Indication can be good medium for informal collaboration. Research in the field done till now has been concerned on Formal collaboration, which includes video conferencing, virtual whiteboards, etc. There is a need to investigate Virtual Presence technology, as an enabler for long-term informal communication channel among geographically distributed people. The Project has been divided into two parts:

Deliverables
In Indian Context, most of the elderly people do not know how to operate a computer nor they use any social networking softwares such as skype to communicate with their friends or relatives. One more problem identified has been the cost of telephone while communicating with children staying abroad or far away from home. The project is aimed at creating a Virtual Prence Ambient System, for example a Photo frame in case of Elderly people, which changes its color representing the state of user on the other side, so that even without knowing how to operate a computer, an elderly person can easily communicate with their near and dear ones.

Technical Specifications
The Hardware and Software being used are as following: