A Framework for Augmented Reality Based Shared Experiences

Meetings occupy 40% of the average working day. According to the Wall Street Journal, CEOs spend 18 hours, Civil Servants spend 22 Hours, and the average office worker spends 16 hours per week in meetings. Meetings are where information is shared, discussions take place and the most important decisions are made. The outcome of meetings should be clearly understood actions, but this is rarely the case as comprehensive meeting minutes and action points are not often captured. Meetings become ineffective and time is wasted and travelling becomes the biggest obstacle and cost (both monetarily and environmentally). Video conferencing technology has been developed to provide a low-cost alternative to expensive, time-consuming meetings. However, the video conferencing user experience lacks naturalness, and this inhibits effective communication between the participants. The Augmented Reality (AR) shared experience application proposed in this work will be the next form of video conferencing.