Telepresence and user-initiated control

Abstract

To date, telepresence; defined as being virtually present at a remote, real location; is a research subject primarily of interest to robotics and aerospace industries. The pilot system and the study presented here aim to investigate whether telepresence can be achieved with an affordable and easy to use system.In our approach a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) with a camera represents the remote self at the local site. The PDA is mounted to a pan and tilt unit which can be controlled from the remote location by simply pressing keys on the keyboard of a PC. In a pilot user study we can show, that (a) even this simple setup can be used as a telepresence system, (b) the control of the field of view within the remote environment is important, and (c) some social presence properties are positively influenced by the user-initiated control.