GColl group-to-group videoconferencing system: design and first experiences

We present a videoconferencing tool, GColl, which aims to support collaboration among remote groups of participants. GColl supports mutual gaze as well as partial gaze awareness for all participants, while still retaining a modest technical requirements: a camera and an echo-canceling microphone at each site; and a laptop with two USB cameras for each user. The environment is also easily deployed and allows quick changes in numbers of participants at individual sites. It is therefore suitable even for ad-hoc groups or teams with small budgets. A quantitative user study has been conducted in order to evaluate functionality of GColl with promising results. Additionally, the tool is available for download as an open-source project.