Telepresence is the appearance or sensation of a person being present at a place other than their true location, via telerobotics or video.
Telepresence requires that the users' senses interact with specific stimuli in order to provide the feeling of being in that other location. Additionally, users may be given the ability to affect the remote location. In this case, the user's position, movements, actions, voice, etc. may be sensed to transmit and duplicate in the remote location to bring about this effect. Therefore information may be traveling in both directions between the user and the remote location.
A popular application is found in telepresence videoconferencing, the highest possible level of videotelephony. Telepresence via video deploys greater technical sophistication and improved fidelity of both sight and sound than in traditional videoconferencing. Technical advancements in mobile collaboration have also extended the capabilities of videoconferencing beyond the boardroom for use with hand-held mobile devices, enabling collaboration independent of location.
A similar or identical concept is telexistence, which was first proposed by Susumu Tachi in Japan in 1980[1] and 1981[2] as patents and the first report was published in Japanese in 1982[3] and in English in 1984.[4]
- ^ S.Tachi, K.Tanie and K.Komoriya: Evaluation device of mobility aids for the blind, Japanese Patent 1462696 filed on December 26, 1980.
- ^ S.Tachi, K.Tanie and K.Komoriya: Operation method of manipulators with sensoryinformation display functions, Japanese Patent 1458263 filed on January 14, 1981.
- ^ S.Tachi and M.Abe: Study on Telexistence (I) -Desigan of Visual Display-, Proceedings of the 21st SICE Annual Conference, pp.167-168, Tokyo, July 28–30, 1982.
- ^ S. Tachi, K. Tanie, K. Komoriya and M. Kaneko, Tele-existence (I): Design and Evaluation of a Visual Display with Sensation of Presence, RoManSy 84 The Fifth CISM-IFToMM Symposium. 1984: 206–215.