First published on . Last updated on November 3, 2024.

I have long been fascinated by telepresence, literally the ability to be anywhere. High quality video conferencing is a form of telepresence. I facilitate videoconferences for CMU classes that literally span the globe.

It has been said that a long journey begins with a single step. Telepresence can change that. You can go on a long journey without taking any steps. Of course, unless you are using mere imagination, you will require technology.

An early form of telepresence can be said to be the telescope. As early as the 1500s, people were using telescopes to experience distant locations, from large expanses of seas to the moons of Jupiter. Gazing through a telescope is generally a passive form of telepresence. You can’t really do anything to what you see. This observation anticipates active telepresence, where you can take an active role in remote locations.

First published on . Last updated on February 15, 2025.

There are several types of telepresence. Passive telepresence allows one to sense a remote location but not take any in situ actions or influence or manipulate the remote location. The several types of telepresence constitute more of a spectrum than one a few isolated types.

Fogcam example view updated every 20 seconds. (Credit: San Francisco State University)

An example of passive telepresence is webcams. Fogcam at SFSU is the oldest functioning webcam. Webcams allow you to feel like you are somewhere else, but they are passive in the sense that you can’t do anything except look around, although some webcams will allow to to move the camera around. Unfortunately, the CMU campus webcam has been decommissioned.

An intermediate form of telepresense involve mobile sensors. Cameras mounted on rovers, such as the discontinued Beam telepresence “robot” provides more active telepresence by allowing a viewer to move around. A lunar or Martian rover whose only purpose is observation fits in the category. Such telepresence can alter the remote location. For example, rovers leave tread makrs and trails in thedust and soil of the Moon and Mars.

Likewise there are increasing levels of influence upon a remote environment, until one achieves a more robust active telepresence. A remote control surgery (such as by Computer Motion and Intuitive Surgery machines) is an invasive form of active telepresense.

First published on November 3, 2024. Last updated on November 3, 2024.

There are several types of technologies that enable telepresence. They fall into three major categories: input/output, telecommunications and controls.

Input/output devices include those which most people are familiar. Cameras are used for visual inputs and microphones are used for audio inputs. Projectors are used for visual outputs and speakers are used for audio outputs. There are many varieties of these. However, there are other input/output technologies. For example sonic sensors can perceive distance. Haptic technologies can perceive and render tactile sensations.

First published on . Last updated on November 3, 2024.

Telepresence can be used for many different applications. A common application is video conferencing. Another is for classrooms with students or instructors who are online. Yet another is to gather data from deep space and control equipment there.

First published on September 22, 2024. Last updated on November 3, 2024.

Telepresence can be used to provide access to lab and other scientific equipment in other locations. This can increase accessibility to equipment and provide cost savings by increasing user economies of scale. One example is online access to observatories. For example, the Observing With NASA site will allow you to take your own astronomical photos.

An example of telepresence in the lab is Labsland, an educational tool to conduct lab experiments remotely on real equipment.

First published on . Last updated on November 3, 2024.

Telepresence in the classroom can be purely passive, where the instructor lectures to a remote location without the possibility on interaction or feedback. Such would be like watching a real time television show or listening to radio. It’s live, but unlike students in a classroom, or even spectators as a sporting event, communication is only one way. The audience can experience what is on the other side of the connection, can adjust the volume or image, bit cannot change reality at the source of this one-way communication.

An intermediate level is where students can type questions for the instructor in a chat window. However, a two way connection between the instructor and remote participants, or an instructor and a remote classroom, allows for real time, active telepresence in both directions. Instructors can interact with students in real time, nearly as well as being there. Software and web platforms such as Zoom, Webex, Google Meet and Team Viewer provide for multidirectional active telepresence.

Special classrooms set up with multiple, large monitors can increase the feeling of being at the other side of the communication.

Some classrooms attempt to go further and display a remote instructor via three-dimensional holographic projection. Such devices can be challenging to maintain and are not widely used. Daniel Bron describes holographic telepresence technology as “cutting-edge innovation that enables life-like, three-dimensional (3D) representations of people or objects to be projected in remote locations, facilitating real-time communication and interaction.”

Source

Daniel Bron (2023), “Communication and Collaboration in the Digital Age“, Medium,
Apr 23, 2023. Last viewed on 15 September 2024.

First published on February 23, 2025. Last updated on February 23, 2025.

Telepresence is used extensively for deep sea exploration and work. The U.S. National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) operates several remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) working at depth in real time. The ROVs are operated by Exploration Command Centers (ECCs).

“Telepresence involves the use of technology to allow a person to feel, interact, and collaborate as if they were present at one location when in fact they are at a different location.” (NOAA Telepresence Technology). “When applied to ocean exploration, telepresence technology allows a potentially unlimited number of scientists on shore to participate in at-sea ocean exploration, adding their expertise to missions no matter where in the world a ship, or the scientists, are located.” (Id.)

NOAA Ocean Exploration uses telepresence technology on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to transmit data in real time to a shore-based hub where the video is then transmitted to any internet-enabled device. Access to the video and a suite of online collaboration tools allow scientists and the public on shore to join the expedition as it is happening.

References

U.S. National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), Introduction to Telepresence. (Last viewed on February 23, 2025). https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/edu/collection/media/hdwe-TPbkgnd.pdf

U.S. National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), Telepresence Technology. (Last viewed on February 23, 2025). https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technology/telepresence/telepresence.html

U.S. National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), The Evolution of Telepresence Technology. (Last viewed on February 23, 2025). https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/07blacksea/background/telepresence/telepresence.html

First published on September 22, 2024. Last updated on November 3, 2024.

Deep space is anything beyond Earth orbit. It will include the Lunar Gateway and any spacecraft on the Moon. Latency between the Earth and the Moon locations is noticeable, but modest, roughly on the order of one second due the distance from the Earth, and perhaps longer due to technology and configuration issues.

However, telepresence to locations such as Mars and beyond are considerably more problematic. Communications are limited by the speed of light, and Mars is far enough that roundtrip radio or laser communications require at least 20 minutes.

Two way telepresence is not limited to visual and audio communications. It is possible to transmit touch and movement. The Emerge device provides the ability to feel movement by a remote person’s hands. (Disclaimer: the author was an early-stage advisor to Emerge).

An example of more advanced control and tactile feedback are the exoskeleton suits being developed at the Earopean Space Agency’s Exoskeleton suit at ESA Telerobotics and Haptics Laboratory at ESTEC in Noordvijk, Netherlands.An exoskeleton can potentially control machinery or humanoid robots in inhospitable environments, such as on the Moon, Mars or asteroids, or allow a remote person to engage in in situ activies, such as a surgeon on Earth performing surgery on a patient on the Moon. Not that latency can become an issue, though, for moving spacecraft, the travel time for radio waves can make real time telepresence inpossible for very long distances sch as between the Earth and Mars.

Haptioc sensor arm at ESA Estec Haptics laboratory