Effect of the Hand and Gaze Pointers in Remote Collaboration

Hand and gaze pointers are effective visual communication cues for remote collaboration. In this paper, we studied the effect of combining them when two basic visual cues (hand gestures and sketches) are available. We conducted a user study with 24 participants, performing two tasks (Tangram and Origami) under four experimental conditions with two independent variables (added hand and gaze pointers) when hand gesture and sketch cues were available as the baseline. The results demonstrated that the added hand and gaze pointer cues improved the co-presence and reduced the task load for remote experts. Additionally, the added gaze pointer cue was effective in fostering behavioral interdependence and message understanding. Participants most preferred the condition of combining all cues, followed by the condition with added gaze pointer, which resulted in quicker task completion and more accurate communication between collaborators. These findings suggest that adding hand and gaze pointer cues can significantly enhance the user experience in remote collaboration.