Effect of 360-Degree Video with View Manipulation on Communication and Creative Output in Hybrid Work Environments
摘要
Video conferences, which rapidly became widespread due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have since become established as a hybrid working arrangement. However, significant challenges remain with respect to remote collaboration, particularly the issue that members’ performance is not fully utilized in creative collaborative work. This study focuses on the asymmetry in communication in a hybrid work environment where main and remote workplaces coexist, and quantitatively evaluates a system that promotes engagement from the remote workplace using a 360-degree camera. To control the 360-degree video view, two novel interfaces, a hand gesture interface and a touch panel, were proposed in addition to the standard mouse-based operation. The experimental evaluation focused on four metrics: total speaking time, speech overlap rate, and creativity indicators (fluency and originality). The results showed that the touch panel operation maximized total speaking time and speech overlap rate and significantly improved both fluency and originality in creative tasks. The mouse operation increased the amount of speech but did not significantly impact creativity, while the hand gesture operation produced no substantial benefits. These findings suggest that providing remote participants with intuitive touch panel operation of 360-degree video views effectively enhances social presence and collaborative creativity in hybrid working environments. The main contribution of this paper is that it quantitatively demonstrates the effectiveness of intuitively operable 360-degree video information in hybrid work environments.