Different communication media create different shopping experiences, e.g., the phone vs. the web. In this study, we examined the early formation of trust and the likelihood that a shopper will return to a website for subsequent purchases. Consumers were asked to select a blender as a gift for someone they knew using one of four types of user interfaces: (1) a standard web interface with no audio or real time interpersonal communication, (2) a web interface with text and audio descriptions of the products, (3) a web interface augmented with Instant Messaging and the ability of a sales agent to push web pages to the customer's web browser, and (4) a TV-based application that allowed a salesperson to talk to the customer while pushing catalog items to the customer's TV. Results indicate that real-time interactivity, but not voice, increased judgments of friendliness and of the trustworthiness of the salesperson. In this paper we discuss these and other results, and their implications for e-commerce.

Communication and commerce by web or phone creates benefits and challenges for both buyer and seller. Websites provide convenience and visualization; telephones provide voice and real-time interaction. To combine key elements of these experiences, we developed PhoneChannel. Using PhoneChannel, a PC user while talking on the telephone can display visuals on the other person's television. How do these different media affect the consumer experience? In a recent laboratory study, prospective homebuyers selected houses of interest using web, telephone, or PhoneChannel. Using the telephone or PhoneChannel led to higher trust; but using web or PhoneChannel led to higher ratings on convenience, enjoyment, and 'good method' scales.

This paper describes a practical synthetic visual environment for use in CAD and teleoperation. Instead of using expensive head mounted display systems, we use a standard display and compute smooth shaded images using an AT&T Pixel Machine. The interface uses a VPL DataGlove [9] to track the hand, bringing the synthetic world into the same space as the hand. Hand gesturing is used to implement a virtual control panel, and some 3D modeling tasks. When simple speech recognition was added it markedly improved the interface. We also outline what extensions might be needed for using this kind of interface for teleoperation.

Computer image generation systems often represent curved surfaces as a mesh of planar polygons that are shaded to restore a smooth appearance. Phong shading is a well known algorithm for producing a realistic shading but it has not been used by real-time systems because of the 3 additions, 1 division, and 1 square-root required per pixel for its evaluation. We describe a new formulation for Phong shading that reduces the amount of computation per pixel to only 2 additions for simple Lambertian reflection and 5 additions and 1 memory reference for Phong's complete reflection model. We also show how to extend our method to compute the specular component with the eye at a finite distance from the scene rather than at infinity as is usually assumed. The method can be implemented in hardware for real-time applications or in software to speed image generation for almost any system.

A set of utility programs for 3D shaded display that make up a testbed for creating raster scan display systems is described.The principal feature of this system is a flexible scan conversion processor that can simultaneously manage several different object types.Communications between the scan conversion routine and processes which follow it in the display pipeline can be routed through a structure called a span buffer which retains some of the highresolution, three-dimensional data of the object description and at the same time has the characteristics of a run length encoded image.It was found that the testbed software has the flexibility for a variety of experimental applications, and that the building block approach reduces the amount of programming effort required for new applications.

We describe a set of utility routines for 3-D shaded display which allow us to create raster scan display systems for various experimental and production applications. The principal feature of this system is a flexible scan conversion processor that can simultaneously manage several different object types.