Abstract
The tools studied in this work are map-based virtual environments that help people at different locations to solve map-based tasks together. The goal of this work is to evaluate the question: does adding real-time videos of the hands and arms of virtual collaborators to a map-based virtual environment help people to be more effective than simpler technologies (e.g. drawing on an electronic map, or telephone only)? Real-time videos of the participants’ hands, when overlaid on a shared electronic map, allow them to use their hands to indicate a route by tracing it with a finger, or draw attention to a location of interest. This information can also be conveyed via simpler and less expensive technologies, such as electronically drawing on a shared map, or verbally describing the route via telephone, but are equally effective? The answer to this question will help developers of virtual collaboration tools to assess whether it is worth the extra effort to include such features in their software.