Sergio Goldenberg (Project Manager), Thomas Barnwell, Neil Pradhan, Bobby Schweizer
Avatar Theater promotes active shared viewing by groups in separate locations watching live or on demand programs synchronously.The theater extends the traditional home viewing experience, to include the virtual presence of other viewers who can share their reactions to the program in real time or asynchronously through persistent annotations.
Avatar Theater uses a multiplex movie theater as the interaction model. From the lobby the interactor can pick their personalized avatar, create a new theater, or choose an existing one.
Once in the theater, a viewer’s avatar appears alongside other viewer’s of the same program.
Each theater has communication features appropriate for the program and the audience. Real time viewers can communicate using custom signage, text messages, sounds, interactions with the screen, and voice chat.
Interactive graphics create sharing of viewer reactions, supporting the social experience with gestures that range from the commonplace to the whimsical.Customized signs and animations suit the programming.
The customizability of the actions make the social nature of Avatar Theater appropriate for multiples types of programming, and enhances the shared viewing experience.
