Virtually dining together in time-shifted environment: KIZUNA design

Abstract

Dining with a remote person requires that both participants are available at the same time to eat together. Because of time-zone differences and other such contingent factors, this condition can often be hard to fulfill. One solution may lie in time-shifted communication. A person can enjoy a meal while watching an earlier recorded video of a remote person’s dining. However, in a time-shifted environment, achieving dining synchronization is a challenge. In this research, we propose a time-shifted tele-dining system (KIZUNA) enabling people to enjoy a meal together in a virtual environment. The system adapts the displayed video’s playback speed to the difference in dining progress between the local and remote person. This is likely to enhance communication and increase enjoyment while dining. A validation experiment revealed that the proposed KIZUNA adaptation method enhanced diners’ communication behavior, and significantly enhanced the perceived presence of the remote person, in comparison with conventional time-shifted tele-dining. This result suggests a promising future for the KIZUNA system.