Inclusion of 'workspace sharing' in telecommunication services

An important feature of face-to-face communications is the prescnce of a shared space, which in general might be the direct environment and !.he present facilities in support of the communication, including desks, writing pads and chalk boards. We study the use of audio/video facilities, which attempt to enrich two-way telecommunications with a similar 'sharing' feature. Our initial exploratory research addresses the 'sharing' of object manipulation and gcsturing related to a spoken diaJogue, in a situation where subject pairs telecommunicate when performing a given task; the video images of the two spatially separated workspaces have been fused to make up one virtually-shared workspace at both sites, enabling gesturing in relation to all present objccts; actual manipulation is. of course, related to local objects only.