TELEPRESENCE
Telepresence refers to a set of technologieswhich 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, are provided with suchstimuli 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 travelling in both directions between the user and the remote location.
TelePresence is a new technology that creates unique, "in-person" experiences between people, places, and events in their work and personal lives. It combines innovative video, audio, and interactive elements (both hardware and software) to create this experience over the network. Telepresencemeans "feeling like you are somewhere else". Some people have a very technical interpretation of this, where they insist that you must have head-mounted displays in order to have telepresence. Other people have a task-specific meaning, where "presence" requires feeling that you are emotionally and socially connected with the remote world. It's all a little vague at this time.
HISTORY
The first commercially successful telepresence company, Teleport (which was later changed to TeleSuite), was founded in 1993 by David Allen and Harold Williams. The original intent was to develop a system that could allow families to interact across great distances without the hassle or costliness of flying. The first systems (which they called TeleSuites) looked more like something out of an upper class home rather than a conference room in an office suite (which are what most systems are used for today).
Hilton Hotels had originally made a deal with them to begin installing them in their hotels throughout the United States and other countries, but usage was low. The idea lost momentum and Hilton eventually backed out. They later began to focus on business oriented telepresence systems. Shareholders eventually held enough stock to take over the company, which ultimately led to its collapse. David Allen purchased all of the assets of TeleSuite and then called the new company Destiny Conferencing.
Although they survived, the idea did not truly catch on until other mega-corporations jumped onboard such asPolycom, HP, and Cisco released similar systems around the mid 2000's. Polycom eventually bought out Destiny Conferencing and now carries the TeleSuite telepresence system now known as the Real Presence Experience (RPX).
IMPLEMENTATION
For a user to be given a convincing telepresence experience, sophisticated technologies are required. The Cisco TelePresence Meeting solution consists of the Cisco TelePresence technology, codecs, cameras, lighting arrays, microphones, speakers, and endpoints that consist of one or more 65-inch plasma screens, and in some models, one-half of a "virtual" conference table. Also included is the Cisco TelePresence Manager, which provides event management, help desk and consolidated device status reporting. It enables integration to enterprise groupware for easy scheduling and launching of Cisco TelePresence calls. Integration with Cisco Unified Communications Manager 5.1 and enterprise groupware provides Cisco TelePresence with just one button to push to launch calls directly from the phone.
Cisco TelePresence endpoints consist of two models, designed for different numbers of users and different size environments:
• Cisco TelePresence 3000-A virtual table with seats for 6 on each side, including three 65-inch plasma screens, speakers, microphones, and lighting
• Cisco TelePresence 1000-Designed to be flush-mounted along a wall space for easy use in smaller footprint areas (for example, individual offices, bank branches, lobbies, doctor's offices) includes one 65-inch plasma screen, speakers, a microphone, and lighting
VISION:
A minimum system usually includes visualfeedback. 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 convincing3D 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.
SOUND:
Sound is generally the easiest sensation to implement with high fidelity, with the telephone dating back more than 100 years, and very high-fidelity sound equipment readily available as consumer gear. Stereophonic sound is more convincing than monoaural sound, and surround soundis better still.
AUDIO/VISUAL TECHNOLOGY:
Cisco TelePresence incorporates the most up-to-date standards and technologies to offer the best audio and visual results:
- H.264 video codecs to offer the highest quality and lowest bit rate
- Session Initiation Protocol
- Native 720p and 1080p high-definition cameras
- Native 720p and 1080p high-definition encoding/decoding
- Low-latency architecture and low bandwidth utilization
- Wideband advanced audio coding with low delay (AAC LD)
- Multichannel spatial audio with echo cancellation and interference filters to eliminate feedback from mobile devices
- Optimized environmental conditioning to provide the best audio and video and overall user experience
NETWORK:
Cisco TelePresence uses the standard IP technology deployed in corporations today and runs on an integrated voice, video, and data network. The system supports high-quality, real-time voice and video communications with branch offices using broadband connections. It offers capabilities for ensuring quality of service (QoS), security, reliability, and high availability for high-bandwidth applications such as video, particularly high-definition video, which can require 1 Mbps to 5 Mbps, depending on the resolution.
HARDWARE-OPTIMIZED ENVIRONMENT:
This system includes purpose-built office furniture, which incorporates cameras and displays, lighting, speakers, microphones, and projection capability into a specially designed table for larger rooms, or, in smaller configurations, into existing office furniture.
SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS:
Cisco TelePresence applications incorporate a variety of new and existing standards-based software for accommodating converged voice and video transmissions, including:
- IP telephony — Cisco TelePresence works with IP-based phones and call-processing systems from the major networking and telecommunications vendors. 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 — Cisco 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.
MANIPULATION:
The ability to manipulate a remote object or environment is an important aspect of real telepresence systems, and can be implemented in 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.
TELEOPERATION:
Teleoperation means "doing work at a distance", although by "work" we mean almost anything. What we mean by "distance" is also vague: it can refer to a physical distance, where the operator is separated from the robot by a large distance, but it can also refer to a change in scale, where for an example a surgeon may use micro-manipulator technology to conduct surgery on a microscopic level.
A telemanipulator (teleoperator) is a device that is controlled remotely by a human operator. If such a device has the ability to perform autonomous work, it is called atelerobot. If the device is completely autonomous, it is called a robot. In simple cases the controlling operator's command actions correspond directly to actions in the device controlled, as for example in a radio controlled model aircraft or a tethered deep submergence vehicle. Where communications delays make direct control impractical (such as a remote planetary rover), or it is desired to reduce operator workload (as in a remotely controlled spy or attack aircraft) , the device will not be controlled directly, instead being commanded to follow a specified path. At increasing levels of sophistication the device may operate somewhat independently in matters such as obstacle avoidance, also commonly employed in planetary rovers.
APPLICATIONS
TELECONFERENCING:
Rather than traveling great distances, in order to have a face-face meeting, it is now possible to teleconference instead, using a multiway 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 andcost benefits, as well as a reduced impact on the environmentby lessening the need for travel - a damaging source of carbon emissions.
CONNECTING COMMUNITIES:
Telepresence can be used to establish a sense of shared presence or shared space among geographically separated members of a group.
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 .
EDUCATION:
The benefits of enabling schoolchildren to take an active part in exploration have 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.
Research is also being conducted to investigate 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, orcognitive apprenticeship. The application of telepresence shows promise for making this approach to teacher professional development practical.
ENTERTAINMENT:
Telepresence systems could be incorporated into theme or nature parks to allow observers to travel through coral reefs or explore underground caves. In amusement parks, the elderly or infirm could experience the thrill of liveroller coaster rides without risk.
In the games, users can interact using telepresence, sharing robots to interact one human with another (paired objects as remote surrogate actors). In other words, if one partner shakes the object, the remote object also shakes.
TELEPRESENCE ART:
In 1998, Diller and Scofidio created the "Refresh", an Internet-based art installation that juxtaposed a live web camera with recorded videos staged by professional actors. Each image was accompanied with a fictional narrative which made it difficult to distinguish which was the live web camera.
DEFECTS:
Some observers argue that two outstanding issues are preventing videoconferencing from becoming a standard form of communication, despite the ubiquity of videoconferencing-capable systems.
These issues are:
1. Eye Contact:
It is known that eye contact plays a large role in conversational turn-taking, perceived attention and intent, and other aspects of group communication. While traditional telephone conversations give no eye contact cues, videoconferencing systems are arguably worse in that they provide an incorrect impression that the remote interlocutor is avoiding eye contact. This issue is being addressed through research that generates a synthetic image with eye contact using stereo reconstruction.
2. Appearance Consciousness:
A second problem with videoconferencing is that one is literally on camera, with the video stream possibly even being recorded. The burden of presenting an acceptable on-screen appearance is not present in audio-only communication. Early studies by Alphonse Chapanis found that the addition of video actually impaired communication, possibly because of the consciousness of being on camera.
3. Complexity of systems:
Most users are not technical and want a simple interface. In hardware systems an unplugged cord or a flat battery in a remote control is seen as failure, contributing to perceived unreliability which drives users back to traditional meetings. Successful systems are backed by support teams who can pro-actively support and provide fast assistance when required.
4. Perceived lack of interoperability:
Not all systems can readily interconnect, for example ISDN and IP systems require a bridge. Popular software solutions cannot easily connect to hardware systems. Some systems use different standards, features and qualities which can require additional configuration when connecting to dis-similar systems.
5. Bandwidth and quality of service:
In some countries it is difficult or expensive to get a high quality connection that is fast enough for good-quality video conferencing. Technologies such as ADSL have limited upload speeds and cannot upload and download simultaneously at full speed. As Internet speeds increase higher quality and high definition video conferencing will become more readily available.
6. Expense of commercial systems:
A well designed system requires a specially designed room and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to fit out the room with codecs, integration equipment and furniture.
BENEFITS OF TELEPRESENCE:
With the TelePresence Meeting solution, users will be able to:
7. Remote interviewing and HR benefits support
8. Face to face customer service and support
CONCLUSION:
The Telepresence Technology overcomes almost all the disadvantages or drawbacks that the videoconferencing systems have. The broad vision for TelePresence is to provide "virtual experiences" in many environments, from business into the home, with applications that would not have otherwise been possible with traditional video technologies. Imagine a face-to-face doctor's appointment, a shopping trip, or a visit between the kids and grandparents without leaving the office or even your home.telepresence brings such an amazing technology ,that would be a revolution in “face-to-face” conferencing.
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