  The dominant paradigm for video chat employs a single camera at each end of
the conversation, but some conversations can be greatly enhanced by using
multiple cameras at one or both ends. This paper provides the first rigorous
investigation of multi-camera video chat, concentrating especially on the
ability of users to switch between views at either end of the conversation. A
user study of 23 individuals analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of
permitting a user to switch between views at a remote location. Benchmark
experiments employing up to four webcams simultaneously demonstrate that
multi-camera video chat is feasible on consumer hardware. The paper also
presents the design of MultiCam, a software package permitting multi-camera
video chat. Some important trade-offs in the design of MultiCam are discussed,
and typical usage scenarios are analyzed.
