Walk and Talk

Short class project at UCSD

View as presentation: SRSLy Joking Final Presentation - YouTube

Motivation and Impact

Most meetings today, especially with the increase in remote work, are done by sitting in front of a computer or laptop without much change in one's working environment. This has made the workday more sedentary for the average working individual and leads to negative physical and psychological consequences, including a higher risk of developing multiple chronic conditions. Light physical activity through the workday can counter these consequences as it has health benefits and improves happiness and satisfaction.

Walking meetings are an easy way to integrate light physical activity into the workday and have been shown boost creative thinking and help people stay focused and energized. However, it is currently difficult to walk or pace around during virtual meetings - app aims to facilitate virtual walking meetings and provide users with a relaxing change of scenery while maintaining a sense of presence by allowing users to see others’ videos, movements, or shared resources.

Participants of virtual walking meetings could choose their own pace, or they could choose to not walk at all – making participation in walking meetings more accessible to everyone – something that isn’t possible with walking meetings in the physical world. Virtual walking or mobile meetings are also a natural evolution to the standing desk.

Features

Multimodal Collaboration

Walk and Talk allows users to collaborate across different devices and supports both desktop and XR users. Meeting participants can choose their most comfortable position and device.

Avatars and Movement

XR users appear as avatars and desktop users appear as TVs with robot bodies. XR avatars also move their heads based on the corresponding user’s head pose.

Choice of Walking Environment

XR users can choose between different environments to walk in using their control panel. The images below show a user changing their enviornment from a forest to a beach scene.

Walking Environment Setup

Users can set up the space they can walk around in and aspects of the environment (like trees or rocks) will be generated in spaces where they cannot walk to keep them safe.

Participant Positioning

Users can toggle between two modes of participant positioning - Meeting participants can either stay in a static location in the environment, or they can follow the user as they walk around.

Recording Audio Snippets

Users can record audio snippets using a button in their control panel.

Desktop Client

Non-XR users can join meetings using the desktop client. These users can also share their screen that can be viewed by both XR and Non-XR participants.

Team