Exploration of the Effect of Automatic Camera Tracking for Teleconferencing

Considering the increase in using teleconferencing in the daily lives of everyone, it becomes more important to provide a good experience while attending remote meetings. Various new technologies have been proposed, ranging from AR/VR setups to enhanced 2D systems with the added possibility of automatic tracking of a person. This exploration paper investigates the impact of automatic camera tracking on virtual communication, focusing on task performance. Using a custom video conference setup combined with the TrackingMaster system (2D LiDAR-based tracking and PTZ camera framing), three tracking configurations were tested: static, tracking-without-presets, and tracking-with-presets. Participants performed various adapted survival tasks designed to encourage movement and interaction. The results showed that tracking with presets enabled slightly faster task completion and required less movement. Furthermore, workload and social presence indicated no major variation across the tracking configurations. The findings suggest potential benefits of camera tracking systems but highlight the need for further research with larger samples and novel measurements to create validated metrics, especially regarding creativity in virtual communication.