Telepresence has been described as the human experience of being fully present at a live real-world location remote from one's own physical location. Someone experiencing video telepresence would therefore be able to behave and receive stimuli as if part of a meeting at the remote site. The aforementioned would result in interactive participation of group activities that would bring benefits to a wide range of users.
Implementation of human sensory elements To provide a telepresence experience, technologies are required that implement the human sensory elements of vision, sound, and manipulation.
Vision and sound A minimum system usually includes visual
feedback. Ideally, the entire
field of view of the user is filled with a view of the remote location, and the viewpoint corresponds to the movement and orientation of the user's head. In this way, it differs from
television or
cinema, where the viewpoint is out of the control of the viewer. In order to achieve this, the user may be provided with either a very large (or wraparound) screen, or
small displays mounted directly in front of the eyes. The latter provides a particularly convincing
3D sensation. The movements of the user's head must be sensed, and the
camera must mimic those movements accurately and in real time. This is important to prevent unintended motion sickness. Another source of future improvement to telepresence displays, compared by some to
holograms, is a projected
display technology featuring life-sized imagery. Sound is generally the easiest sensation to implement with high
fidelity, based on the foundational
telephone technology dating back more than 130 years. Very high-fidelity sound equipment has also been available for a considerable period of time, with
stereophonic sound being more convincing than
monaural sound.
Manipulation The ability to manipulate a remote object or environment is an important aspect for some telepresence users and can be implemented in a large number of ways depending on the needs of the user. Typically, the movements of the user's hands (position in space and posture of the fingers) are sensed by
wired gloves,
inertial sensors, or absolute spatial position sensors. A
robot in the remote location then copies those movements as closely as possible. This ability is also known as
teleoperation. The more closely the robot re-creates the form factor of the human hand, the greater the sense of telepresence. The complexity of robotic effectors varies greatly, from simple one axis grippers, to
fully anthropomorphic robot hands.
Haptic teleoperation refers to a system that provides some sort of tactile force feedback to the user, so the user feels some approximation of the weight, firmness, size, and/or texture of the remote objects manipulated by the robot. A new form of technology, called collaborative telepresence, is currently being developed which will eventually be used to collaborate with others while seeming like you are in the same room as the other person, keeping a normal social distance. Collaborative telepresence uses haptic sensors like these to allow a sense of touch.
Freedom of movement The prevalence of high quality video conferencing using mobile devices, tablets and portable computers has enabled considerable growth in telepresence robots to help give a better sense of remote physical presence for communication and collaboration in the office, home or school when one cannot be there in person. The robot avatar can move or look around at the command of the remote person. Drivable telepresence robots – typically contain a display (integrated or separate phone or tablet) mounted on a roaming base. Some examples of roaming telepresence robots include Beam by Suitable Technologies, Double by Double Robotics, Ava Telepresence by Ava Robotics, Anybots, Vgo, TeleMe by Mantarobot, and Romo by Romotive. More modern roaming telepresence robots may include an ability to operate
autonomously. The robots can map out the space and be able to avoid obstacles while driving themselves between rooms and their docking stations.
Effectiveness Telepresence's effectiveness varies by degree of fidelity. Research has noted that telepresence solutions differ in degree of implementation, from "immersive" through "adaptive" to "lite" solutions. At the top are immersive solutions where the environments at both ends are highly controlled (and often the same) with respect to lighting, acoustics, decor and furniture, thereby giving all the participants the impression they are together at the same table in the same room, thus engendering the "immersive" label. Adaptive telepresence solutions may use the same technology, but the environments at both ends are not highly controlled and hence often differ. Adaptive solutions differ from telepresence lite solutions not in terms of control of environments, but in terms of integration of technology. Adaptive solutions use a managed service, whereas telepresence lite solutions use components that someone must integrate.
Transparency of implementation and
Newark, New Jersey in 2012 Telepresence systems focus on visual configurations related to interpersonal communication. Features include life-size displays of participants, fluid motion, accurate color reproduction, and the appearance of direct eye contact. The technology is used in business settings. In June 2006, the chief executive officer of
Cisco Systems,
John Chambers, compared the technology to
teleporting from
Star Trek and referred to it as a potential market for the company. Rarely will a telepresence system provide such a transparent implementation with such comprehensive and convincing stimuli that the user perceives no differences from actual presence. But the user may set aside such differences, depending on the application. The fairly simple
telephone achieves a limited form of telepresence using just the human sensory element of hearing, in that users consider themselves to be
talking to each other rather than talking to the telephone itself. Watching
television, for example, although it stimulates our primary senses of
vision and
hearing, rarely gives the impression that the watcher is no longer at home. However, television sometimes engages the senses sufficiently to trigger emotional responses from viewers somewhat like those experienced by people who directly witness or experience events. Televised depictions of sports events as an example can elicit strong emotions from viewers. As the screen size increases, so does the sense of immersion, as well as the range of subjective mental experiences available to viewers. Some viewers have
reported a sensation of genuine
vertigo or
motion sickness while watching
IMAX movies of flying or outdoor sequences. Because most currently feasible telepresence gear leaves something to be desired; the user must
suspend disbelief to some degree, and choose to act in a natural way, appropriate to the remote location, perhaps using some skill to operate the equipment. In contrast, a telephone user does not see herself as "operating" the telephone but merely talking to another person with it. == Related technologies ==