Simon Gunkel

TNO | tno · Networks

Recent improvements in extended reality (XR) technology created an increase in XR products and solutions in the industry while raising new requirements for new or improved architectural concepts. This need can be particularly complex as XR applications often relate both to 3D geometric rendering and multimedia paradigms. This article outlines the m...

With recent advancements in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) hardware, many new immersive Extended Reality (XR) applications and services arose. One challenge that remains is to solve the social isolation often felt in these extended reality experiences and to enable a natural multi-user communication with high Social Presence. While...

Modern immersive multisensory communication systems can provide compelling mediated social communication experiences that approach face-to-facecommunication. Existing methods to assess the quality of mediated social communication experiences are typically targeted at specific tasks or communication technologies. As a result, they do not address all...

Telemeetings such as audiovisual conferences or virtual meetings play an increasingly important role in our professional and private lives. For that reason, system developers and service providers will strive for an optimal experience for the user, while at the same time optimizing technical and financial resources. This leads to the discipline of...

Recent improvements in Extended Reality (XR) technology created an increase in XR products and solutions in the industry, while raising new requirements for new or improved architectural concepts. This need can be particularly complex as XR applications often relate both to 3D geometric rendering and multimedia paradigms. This paper outlines the ma...

Recent improvements in Extended Reality (XR) technology created an increase in XR products and solutions in the industry, while raising new requirements for new or improved architectural concepts. This need can be particularly complex as XR applications often relate both to 3D geometric rendering and multimedia paradigms. This paper outlines the ma...

While the sense of presence in VR has been extensively studied, there are currently no scales available to measure the sense of presence in AR and MR. Here we propose a general Holistic Presence Questionnaire (HPQ), that measures presence through the sense of telepresence, internal and external plausibility and perceived behavioral and cognitive af...

While the sense of presence in VR has been extensively studied, there are currently no scales available to measure the sense of presence in AR and MR. Here we propose a general Holistic Presence Questionnaire (HPQ), that measures presence through the sense of telepresence, internal and external plausibility and perceived behavioral and cognitive af...

Modern immersive multisensory communication systems can provide compelling mediated social communication experiences that approach face-to-face (F2F) communication. Existing frameworks to assess the quality of mediated social communication experiences are typically targeted at specific communication technologies and do not address all relevant aspe...

Communication through modern immersive systems that afford the representation of a wide range of multisensory (visual, auditory, haptic, olfactory) social and ambient (environmental) affective cues can provide compelling experiences that approach face-to-face communication. The quality of a mediated social communication experience (QoE) can be defi...

Recent developments in key technologies like 5G, Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) and Tactile Internet result in new possibilities for communication. Particularly, these key digital technologies can enable remote communication and collaboration in remote experiences. In this demo, we work towards 6-degrees of freedom (DoF) photo-realistic shar...

Virtual reality (VR) and 360° video are reshaping the media landscape, creating a fertile business environment. In the past years, many new 360° cameras and VR headsets entered the consumer market. Distribution platforms are being established and new production studios are emerging. VR is a hot topic in research and industry, and many new and excit...

As Virtual Reality (VR) applications gain more momentum recently, the social and communication aspects of VR experiences become more relevant. In this paper, we present some initial results of understanding the type of applications and factors that users would find relevant for Social VR. We conducted a study involving 91 participants, and identifi...

Virtual Reality (VR) and 360-degree video are set to become part of the future social environment, enriching and enhancing the way we share experiences and collaborate remotely. While Social VR applications are getting more momentum, most services regarding Social VR focus on animated avatars. In this demo, we present our efforts towards Social VR...

Virtual Reality (VR) and 360-degree video are reshaping the media landscape, creating a fertile business environment. In 2016 many new 360-degree cameras and VR headsets entered the consumer market. Distribution platforms are being established and new production studios are emerging. VR is a hot topic in research and industry, and many new and exci...

Virtual Reality (VR) and 360-degree video are set to become part of the future social environment, enriching and enhancing the way we share experiences and collaborate remotely. In this demo, we present our ongoing efforts towards social and shared VR; a modular web based VR framework that extends current video conferencing capabilities with new VR...

Social events such as networking parties are excellent opportunities to expand one's social network and make new social ties, as well as simply have fun and enjoy oneself. With the emergence of pervasive technology, we now have the opportunity to discover face-to-face socializing behaviors of individual guests and support them in their socializing...

One particular problem of QoE research in video conferencing is, that most research in the past concentrated on one-to-one video conferencing or simply video consumption. However, video conferencing with two people (one-to-one) and within a group (multi-party) is different. Particularly, limitations of one participant might have an effect on the Qo...

Delay has been found as one of the most crucial factors determining the Quality of Experience (QoE) in synchronous video-mediated communication. The effect has been extensively studied for dyadic conversations and recently the study of small group communications has become the focus of the research community. Contrary to dyads, in which the delay i...

In this paper we discuss communication problems in video-mediated small group discussions. We present results from a study in which ad-hoc groups of five people, with moderator, solved a quiz question-select answer style task over a video-conferencing system. The task was performed under different delay conditions, of up to 2000ms additional one-wa...

As commercial, off-the-shelf, services enable people to easily connect with friends and relatives, video-mediated communication is filtering into our daily activities. With the proliferation of broadband and powerful devices, multi-party gatherings are becoming a reality in home environments. With the technical infrastructure in place and has been...

With the growing popularity of video communication systems, more people are using group video chat, rather than only one-to-one video calls. In such multi-party sessions, remote participants compete for the available screen space and bandwidth. A common solution is showing the current speaker prominently. Bandwidth limitations may not allow all str...

Video-Mediated group communication is quickly moving from the office to the home, where network conditions might fluctuate. If we are to provide a software component that can, in real-time, monitor the Quality of Experience (QoE), we would have to carry out extensive experiments under different varying (but controllable) conditions. Unfortunately,...

Video-Mediated group communication is filtering into everyday use, as commercial products enable people to connect with friends and relatives. Current solutions provide basic support, so that communication can happen, but do they enable conversations? This paper argues that the purpose and the context of the conversation are influential factors tha...

With the growing popularity of video communication systems, more people are using group video chat, rather than only one-to-one video calls. In such multi-party sessions, remote participants compete for the available screen space and bandwidth. A common solution is showing the current speaker prominently. Bandwidth limitations may not allow all str...

Recent developments on Social TV point to an evolution from traditional IPTV services towards more social experiences. Newer applications and services have appeared wherein groups of people in different locations can watch multimedia content while synchronously communicating with each other. We name such applications as synchronous shared experienc...