TELEPRESENCE

Arun T. Ravindran

S1 MBA IB
Roll No.: 04
School of Management Studies
CUSAT, Kochi – 22
Email: ravitarun31@yahoo.co.in

Abstract: Telepresence refers to a set of technologies which allow a person

to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance that they were
present, or to have an effect, at a location other than their true location.
Telepresence requires that the senses of the user, or users, be provided with
such stimuli as to give the feeling of being in that other location. Additionally,
the user(s) may be given the ability to affect the remote location. In this case,
the user's position, movements, actions, voice, etc. may be sensed,
transmitted and duplicated in the remote location to bring about this effect.
Therefore information may be traveling in both directions between the user
and the remote location.

Key Words: Telepresence, Telepresence Applications, Telepresence

technology.

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 1.0 INTRODUCTION

Telepresence refers to a set of technologies which allow a person to feel as if they were
present, to give the appearance that they were present, or to have an effect, at a location other
than their true location. Telepresence requires that the senses of the user, or users, be
provided with such stimuli as to give the feeling of being in that other location. Additionally, the
user(s) may be given the ability to affect the remote location. In this case, the user's position,
movements, actions, voice, etc. may be sensed, transmitted and duplicated in the remote
location to bring about this effect. Therefore information may be traveling in both directions
between the user and the remote location.

Telepresence is a matter of degree. Rarely will a Telepresence system provide 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.
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, or disasters such as the September 11 terrorist attacks,
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.

Even the fairly simple telephone achieves a limited form of Telepresence, in that users
consider themselves to be talking to each other rather than talking to the telephone itself.

Most often, 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.

2.0 TECHNOLOGY

Much of this is similar to that used for Virtual Reality except of course in VR the user is
immersed in a computer generated world whereas in Telepresence the user is immersed in a
remote real world. The user needs to be presented with the stimuli of the remote site and to
have the ability to exercise control over the remote site. Therefore video, audio, and haptic
display systems such as head mounted displays (HMDs), autostereoscopic display screens,
stereo headphones, and gloves or other devices equipped with touch sensing, may all be used
by the home site system operator. Olfactory displays could also be used but practical
commercial systems have yet to be developed. Control also needs to be exercised by the
human operator and devices such as head and body tracking devices, joysticks, master hands
and arms in the form of gloves and exoskeletal structures, and other application specific
controllers, are used. The displays and controllers are usually interfaced to the communication
link via a microprocessor-based system, in our case a PC. This provides a graphical and
textual control interface for the user, handles signal processing and, if necessary, image

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decompression. Sometimes there is an additional CODEC (signal coder/decoder) between the
microprocessor system and the communication link.

2.1 Communication Link

Any communication link may be used by a telepresence system The specific type chosen will
depend on factors such as the distance between the home and remote site, the bandwidth
requirements, the sensitivity of the system to latency and delays in the link, availability of
services at both home and remote sites, and the relative costs. For example the highest fidelity
of immersion would be obtainable from a direct, dedicated, umbilical link between home and
remote sites with effectively unlimited bandwidth. At the other extreme we have used a very
low bandwidth 6 kbps mobile telephone link to transmit live video and control signals.

2.2 Remote Site Equipment

Much of this equipment is similar to that found in the field of robotics. However, unless
telerobotic systems are being considered, Telepresence systems do not demand autonomous
operation - by definition they require a human in the control loop to provide the system
intelligence. Typical equipment found at the remote site would therefore include; pan and tilt
monoscopic and stereoscopic camera platforms, other sensor platforms including microphones
and touch, force, and olfactory sensors, slave manipulators and grippers, and mobility
providers such as wheeled or tracked vehicles. Again a microprocessor-based system is
normally necessary for control and signal processing. Also in many cases, depending on
bandwidth availability, a means of grabbing the video and compressing it before transmission
is necessary. The interface between the remote site equipment and the communication link is
similar to that at the home site. If, though it is not normal, there is a human presence at the
remote site then a means of communication is valuable and a loudspeaker system is useful.

2.3 Software Applications

Telepresence applications incorporate a variety of new and existing standards-based software

for accommodating converged voice and video transmissions, including:

• IP telephony — Telepresence works with IP-based phones. This can simplify

launching calls because it uses a telephone instead of a complicated remote control.
• Groupware — Integration with enterprise groupware solutions (such as Microsoft
Outlook and Lotus Notes) accommodates easy scheduling of meetings and access to
corporate information.
• Services — Telepresence enables easy scheduling, management, reporting, billing,
and metrics applications to ensure proper tracking and bill-back of activity on the system,
as well as real-time support services.

3.0 TELEPRESENCE COMMUNICATIONS LINKS

3.1 ISDN

Original long distance telepresence experiments were conducted using an ISDN line. A British
Telecom VC7000 video conferencing terminal was used to compress video at the Remote Site
which was transmitted via ISDN. At the Users Site, another VC7000 decompressed the video
for display on a VR Headset. The VC7000 also allowed control signals sent via a pseudo

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RS232 link over the ISDN link. ISDN offers high bandwidth (64Kbits) but requires special
installation of telephone lines and ties you to a fixed location.

3.2 GSM Mobile Telephone

In order to allow free roaming telepresence, the group teamed up with Orange, a UK mobile
telephone company. Using Orange's GSM phones, we are now able to demonstrate
telepresence from anywhere in the world with GSM coverage. The mobile phone acts as a
9.6Kbits modem and can connect to another mobile phone or a standard telephone modem.
Using mobile phones on both remote and local telepresence sites allows untethered operation
at both ends of the communications link.

The Computer Science Department at Strathclyde University have developed a unique Video
Compression CODEC suited to low bandwidth links, such as the mobile phones. Video and
control signals are sent via the phones and users have been able to be telepresent in our
Glasgow lab from numerous locations in the UK, as well as Boston in the US by using an
Orange mobile phone with roaming capability.

3.3 19.2K Multi-Link GSM Mobile Telephones

A single Mobile Phone link restricts us to 9.6KBits of data per second. In order to increase this,
thus improving the video quality, we have developed a system using two mobile phones
running in parallel. The data transmitted is shared between the two phones, giving a 19.2K bits
channel. This also acts as a safety feature. If one phone drops its line, the connection from
User to Remote Site is not lost. The other mobile phone keeps going, leaving us a single
9.6Kbits channel. The failed phone can redial and reconnect, restoring the 19.2Kbits link.

3.4 14.4, 28.8 and 33.6K Modems

Where the User and the Remote Site are near telephone lines, we can swap the 9.6K Mobile
phones, for 33.6K modems, raising the bandwidth, allowing for better quality compressed
video. It also lowers the latency through the communications system.

3.5 Standard Ethernet

Within our laboratory, we are able to connect our Remote Site equipment and user's equipment
to a 10Mbits Ethernet. This allows very high bandwidth situations to be tested. We can also
restrict the bandwidth to simulate the effects of the other communications systems.

3.6 The Internet

By making the Remote Site a server connected to the Internet, we have been able to link up
from anywhere in the world via the Internet. In the US, we connected a desktop PC to the
Internet via an AOL account. We were able to connect to the Remote Site server on Glasgow
and send the video and control signals via the Internet. By using Mobile Phones at the Remote
Site to dial into an Internet Service Provider, anyone who can connect to the Internet can
communicate with the remote site. There are problems of varying delays, latencies and
bandwidths, but by selecting a low bandwidth, these usual internet bottlenecks can be
minimized.

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3.7 Protocols

We are experimenting with various protocols over the mobile phones. Our current configuration
uses a TCP/IP link between the Users Site and the Remote Site. The PPP protocol is used on
standard modem links; mobile phone users have the choice of using PPP or a custom protocol
of our own design which minimizes overheads and maximizes throughput over the GSM
network.

Using TCP/IP allows us to rapidly switch from lab based Ethernet setups, to Internet
Connections, to dial-up model and mobile phone connections at ease. These protocols have
their overheads and we are researching ways to reduce and remove overheads, increasing the
bandwidth of the link. This is especially important at mobile phone bandwidths.

3.8 Video Compression

All the experiments (except ISDN) have used the University's own Video Compression CODEC
which easily scales from very low (9.6K) to high (150K) bandwidths. By using our own CODEC,
we can easily adapt to new situations.

4.0 TELEPRESENCE APPLICATIONS

4.1 Teleconferencing

Rather than traveling great distances, in order to have a face-face meeting, it is now possible
to teleconference instead, using a multiday video phone. Each member of the meeting, or each
party, can see every other member on a screen or screens, and can talk to them as if they
were in the same room. This brings enormous time and cost benefits, as well as a reduced
impact on the environment by lessening the need for travel - a damaging source of carbon
emissions.

A good telepresence strategy puts the human factors first, focusing on visual collaboration
solutions that closely replicate the brain's innate preferences for interpersonal communications,
separating from the unnatural "talking heads" experience of traditional videoconferencing.
These cues include life–size participants, fluid motion, accurate flesh tones and the
appearance of true eye contact. This is already a well-established technology, used by many
businesses today. The chief executive officer of Cisco Systems, John Chambers in June 2006
at the Networkers Conference compared telepresence to teleporting from Star Trek, and said
that he saw the technology as a potential billion dollar market for Cisco.

Michael Vendetta, Vice President of Engineering of Telanetix defines Telepresence as a

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 though part of a meeting at the remote site. The fore mentioned
would result in interactive participation of group activities that will bring benefits to a wide range
of users. Application examples could be sited within emergency management and security
services, B&I, entertainment and education industries.

Mike Ayres, business development director at Easy net, a BSkyB Company, highlights the
benefits of Telepresence: "There were four drivers for our decision to do more business over
video and telepresence. We wanted to reduce our travel spend, reduce our carbon footprint

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and environmental impact, improve our employees' work/life balance, and improve employee
productivity."

4.2 Connecting communities

Telepresence can be used to establish a sense of shared presence or shared space among
geographically separated members of a group.

4.3 Hazardous environments

Many other applications in situations where humans are exposed to hazardous situations are
readily recognized as suitable candidates for telepresence. Mining, bomb disposal, military
operations, rescue of victims from fire, toxic atmospheres, or even hostage situations, are
some examples.

4.4 Pipeline inspection

Small diameter pipes otherwise inaccessible for examination can now be viewed using pipeline
video inspection.

4.5 Remote surgery

The possibility of being able to project the knowledge and the physical skill of a surgeon over
long distances has many attractions. Thus, again there is considerable research underway in
the subject. (Locally controlled robots are currently being used for joint replacement surgery as
they are more precise in milling bone to receive the joints.) The armed forces have an obvious
interest since the combination of telepresence, teleoperation, and telerobotics can potentially
save the lives of battle casualties by allowing them prompt attention in mobile operating
theatres by remote surgeons.

Recently, teleconferencing has been used in medicine (telemedicine or telematics), mainly

employing audio-visual exchange, for the performance of real time remote surgical operations -
as demonstrated in Regensburg, Germany in 2002. In addition to audio-visual data, the
transfer of haptic (tactile) information has also been demonstrated in telemedicine.

4.6 Education

Research has been conducted on the use of telepresence to provide professional development
to teachers. Research has shown that one of the most effective forms of teacher professional
development is coaching, or cognitive apprenticeship. The application of telepresence shows
promise for making this approach to teacher professional development practical.

The benefits of enabling schoolchildren to take an active part in exploration have also been
shown by the JASON and the NASA Ames Research Center programs. The ability of a pupil,
student, or researcher to explore an otherwise inaccessible location is a very attractive
proposition; For example, locations where the passage of too many people is harming the
immediate environment or the artifacts themselves, e.g. undersea exploration of coral reefs,
ancient Egyptian tombs, and more recent works of art.

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 5.0 CONCLUSION

Telepresence is a matter of degree. Rarely will a Telepresence system provide 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.
Telepresence systems aimed at corporate customers are commercialized by such companies
as Digital Video Enterprises (DVE), BrightCom, Cisco, Telanetix, and Polycom. Prices range
from tens to hundreds of thousand dollars. These systems include multiple microphones,
speakers, high-definition monitors, cameras, and often dedicated networks and custom-made
studios. They strive to be as transparent to users as possible by providing life-size videos,
imperceptible transmission delays, and user-friendly interfaces.

6.0 REFERENCES

1. “Telepresence Applications”,
http://www.telepresence.strath.ac.uk/applications.htm accessed on 26-
10-2009.
2. “Telepresence Communications”,
http://www.telepresence.strath.ac.uk/communications.htm accessed on
26-10-2009.
3. “Telepresence Technology”,
http://www.telepresence.strath.ac.uk/technology.htm accessed on 26-
10-2009.
4. “Telepresence Applications”,
http://www.telepresence.strath.ac.uk/technology.htm accessed on 26-
10-2009.
5. “Telepresence”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepresence accessed on
26-10-2009.