Semantics-Aware Avatar Locomotion Adaption for Indoor Cross-Scene AR Telepresence

Geographically dispersed users often rely on virtual avatars as intermediaries to facilitate interactive communication and collaboration. However, existing methods for augmented reality (AR) telepresence applications exhibit limitations, including restricted movement within confined sub-areas, lack of smooth transitions, and the necessity for manually establishing object mapping between dissimilar environments. We present a novel interactive AR framework for virtual avatar locomotion adaption while preserving semantic coherence across dissimilar indoor scenes. Initially, we conduct a preliminary user study to identify key attributes influencing preferred avatar movement. These attributes are quantified as features, and a dataset of user annotations on avatar movements is created. Based on the user interaction and scene configurations, we employ a deep reinforcement learning neural network to guide the avatar to the ideal position while maximizing semantic coherence. We validate our proposed framework through simulations and user studies by implementing an AR-based 3D telepresence prototype, demonstrating the efficacy of our framework in conveying user intentions across dissimilar environments, enabling natural and immersive 3D telepresence interactions.