Three approaches to the camera arrangement in video mail

Three camera-arrangements, differing in number and location of video cameras, were compared in a prototype video-mail system using a between-subjects design. Subjects viewed and created video-mail messages containing shots of faces, objects and computers. Subjects rated their satisfaction with their camera arrangement, the convenience and importance of different types of shots in video-mail, and described their ideal video-mail system. Subjects found object shots to be more important than face shots, although face shots were easier to obtain than object shots in the two arrangements that had front-located cameras. Face shots were frequently included by subjects in all conditions. Satisfaction with the camera arrangements was not rated highly in any of the conditions. Improvements include better support for object and computer shots and the inclusion of face shots at the user's discretion.