Equal participation is essential for effective collaboration in co-located discussions, yet people often stay silent when speaking up may entail interpersonal or professional risk. SecondVoice is a mixed-reality system that lets users speak through an embodied virtual proxy, bringing hesitant points into the live spoken floor without exposing the original speaker to direct scrutiny. Users interact with a private overlay, specifying their intent via a structured template rather than composing a full utterance. The system reformulates the input and vocalizes it through the proxy. We mapped a design space of participation channels under social risk and conducted a preliminary within‑subject study (N=16) comparing the full SecondVoice system with an anonymous text‑board channel across two group‑discussion tasks. Half of the participants reported using SecondVoice to voice a point they did not say aloud, versus 18.8% for the text board. Proxy‑delivered points entered the spoken floor and triggered multi‑turn group engagement, a pattern absent after text‑board posts. Participants found the channel situationally valuable but highlighted trade‑offs concerning timing, ownership, and trust in the reformulation.
Blogger's Review: SecondVoice illustrates how technology can lower social barriers and amplify diverse voices. Enhancing transparency of the reformulation process and improving real‑time responsiveness could broaden its impact across many collaborative settings.