Generating the Presence of Remote Mourners: a Case Study of Funeral Webcasting in Japan

Title of the Paper

Generating the Presence of Remote Mourners: A Case Study of Funeral Webcasting in Japan

Bibliographic Information

• Subject Area: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Death Rituals
• Keywords: Funeral, Death Rituals, Technology and Religious Practices, Mourning and Memorialization, Telepresence Technology, 360-Degree Camera, Mourning Design

Research Background and Problem

• Identified Issues or Challenges:
  The COVID-19 pandemic has prevented many people worldwide from attending funerals in person, impacting the participatory nature and experiential quality of traditional funerals. The authors focus on how HCI technology can bridge the gap between online and offline funeral experiences, addressing challenges such as the inability to remotely partake in traditional rituals (e.g., offering flowers and incense) or bidding farewell to loved ones.
• Importance of the Problem:
  Funerals are irreplaceable events for the bereaved and their families, serving as crucial spaces for emotional expression. With global aging trends and the pandemic's impact, the demand for remote funeral participation is growing. Exploring how technology can support this unique context holds significant social and cultural value.
• Research Motivation and Related Work:
  The authors previously studied 360-degree video and interactive broadcasting technologies and attempted to apply these technologies to remote funeral participation. They also synthesized theoretical frameworks from research on mourning design, technology and spiritual practices, and death rituals.

Proposed Solution

• Proposed Solution by the Authors:
  By combining an original 360-degree telepresence system with the Zoom application running on smartphones, the authors aim to transition from remotely "attending" a funeral to experiencing an immersive funeral presence. They introduce a new role—the "Remote Funeral Conductor (RFC)"—responsible for coordinating on-site and online participants and providing technical support.
• Innovative Aspects of the Solution:
  1. Proposed a conceptual design for interactive mourning technologies.
  2. Explored design directions for generating a sense of "presence" in funeral contexts through technology.
  3. Integrated religious, cultural, and HCI technologies to propose a respectful and practical funeral participation experience.
• Implementation Steps and Key Technologies:
  1. Real-time streaming using 360-degree camera nodes and a WebRTC system.
  2. Utilization of Zoom as a supplementary tool to enhance interactivity and flexibility.
  3. Recording high-resolution 360-degree videos to provide resources for post-funeral viewing and memorialization.
  4. Deploying multiple device nodes on-site and setting up televisions and monitoring devices in remote households for viewing.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Outcomes:
  1. Enabled remote family members to feel a sense of "presence" at the funeral through live-streaming technology and allowed them to bid farewell to the deceased via online interaction.
  2. Achieved partial integration of online and offline funerals, providing feasibility and a certain level of sensory experience for remote participation.
  3. Delivered high-resolution 360-degree funeral recordings, preserving valuable memorial materials for the bereaved and their families.
• Advantages Over Existing Solutions:
  The proposed system not only supports real-time viewing but also allows remote participants to interact with on-site attendees, significantly enhancing the immersion and ceremonial feel of remote participation.
• Experimental or Evaluation Results:
  Mobile live streaming using Zoom outperformed live streaming with fixed 360-degree cameras in terms of experience. However, high-resolution 360-degree video recordings were valued by family members as useful historical archives and were shared with visitors post-funeral.
• Limitations and Future Directions:
  1. The system still faces technical challenges such as insufficient network bandwidth and poor audio quality.
  2. The current study is limited to Japanese funeral culture, and its findings may not be applicable to funerals in diverse cultural contexts worldwide.
  3. Future work will delve deeper into designing enhanced interactivity and presence in remote rituals, exploring more immersive memorial experiences through virtual reality technologies.