Abstract

Conversations happen throughout a our entire lives and are no longer limited to only in person talks. With the rise of the internet people can communicate, for example, via text messages or in virtual conversations. That might brings up the question if virtual conversations contribute to the social bonding, which we cultivate through communication, or even hinder the development of it. Synchrony in conversations is a major key factor for interpersonal closeness and maintaining social contacts. This thesis analyzes the synchrony between two people in a virtual conference. In a user study, the data of 10 dyads communicating in a virtual conference were evaluated. The dyads talked to each other in a face-to-face and a back-to-back setup. We discovered that linear heart rate correlation between conversation partners started to rise when the talked about an embarrassing moment or a moral question. Moreover, a higher number of synchronized eye blinks was obtained when people did not see each other during a talk. We suggest to analyze more multi-modal communication to give more meaningful statements.

Results/Implementation/Project Description

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