A Study of the Effects of Network Latency on Visual Task Performance in Video Conferencing
Shrikant Garg, Ayushi Srivastava, Mashhuda Glencross, Ojaswa Sharma
Abstract
We study the effects of network latency and jitter on visual task performance between participants in video conferencing. Users of video conferencing tools commonly report a phenomenon known as Zoom fatigue. We postulate that this is a consequence of the effort required to maintain visual communication in the face of network latency and jitter. Understanding the relationship between network latency, jitter, and Zoom fatigue can inform the design of visual computing methods to mitigate the effects. To study the causes of Zoom fatigue, we analyzed a visual communication task via video conferencing through a user study employing a game of Charades since it relies on highly visual communication. Our findings demonstrate a direct correlation between user performance while playing the game and network latency and that the level of user engagement in the game plays a vital role in indicating adaptation to the latency when user engagement levels are high.