Grant: Canada Research Chairs

Video-based telecommunication technology such as Skype and similar applications augments traditional telephony with significant visual information. However, the Skype experience is still not comparable to real face-to-face communication. Why is that so? Building on his extensive research on people perception and making sophisticated usage of virtual reality technology, Troje studies dyadic communication along a continuum of display conditions that span from classic video communication to a true face-to-face encounter. He will identify sensory cues and information channels causing these differences and will investigate how they affect social behaviour. Results will inform the design of efficient videoconferencing systems that mediate real face-to-face experience.