MagHeart: Exploring Playful Avatar Co-Creation and Shared Heartbeats for Icebreaking in Hybrid Meetings

A team of researchers has published a paper on arXiv detailing 'MagHeart,' a novel system designed to solve the social awkwardness plaguing hybrid meetings. The system tackles the problem from two angles: a creative, collaborative task and an abstract biofeedback mechanism. First, meeting participants—both co-located and remote—co-create avatars together using a digital LEGO-like interface, fostering a shared, playful activity. Second, a physical, magnetic device placed on the meeting room table pulses with the heartbeat of a remote participant, providing a tangible, ambient presence cue.

The research, led by Black Sun and colleagues, is grounded in the documented challenge of 'asymmetric participation,' where remote attendees often feel excluded from the informal interactions that naturally occur before a meeting starts. MagHeart's dual approach of 'playful co-creation' and 'embodied bio-feedback' is a deliberate attempt to make remote participants 'materially and perceptually present.' An exploratory study combining quantitative and qualitative data examined anticipated engagement, social presence, and future-use intentions.

While results highlighted the potential for such embodied icebreakers to support early interaction, the study also surfaced important tensions. Participants raised concerns about privacy (sharing biometric data like heart rate), potential distraction from the core meeting agenda, and the contextual appropriateness of such a playful tool in all professional settings. The work contributes design insights for future hybrid meeting tools, emphasizing the need to balance innovation with social sensitivity.