Detection, analysis and rendering of audience reactions in distributed multimedia performance

Recent advances in distributed multimedia technologies encourage the development of interactive performance systems. These systems allow multiple users to take part in a performance either as players or spectators and influence its development in real time. However, in order for these applications to become effective they have to provide meaningful interaction capabilities and adequate means of expression to all the participants. This research provide an interaction framework that seeks to address these requirements. In particular, the system allows players and spectators to exchange messages during the performance. These messages describe player actions and audience reactions. Furthermore, the framework monitors the development of the event and analyzes the behavior of the participants in order to: (i) detect and render shared audience reactions (ii) achieve a high degree of audience engagement. Finally, the system synchronizes the presentation of audience reactions with performance developments at each site. This method has been applied in MISSION, a multi-player game on the Web.