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1. 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, are 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 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. Telepresence means "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.
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 infamous 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 on the telephone rather than talking to the telephone itself. To an observer with no knowledge of telephones, watching a person chatting to an inanimate object might seem curious, but the telephone is readily usable by almost everyone who can speak and listen.
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. A goal of telepresence developers might be to similarly have their users lose direct awareness of the equipment they are using.
The first application, the Cisco TelePresence Meeting solution, delivers life size images, ultra-high-definition video (1080p), spatial audio, and a specially-designed environment that create a "room within a room" meeting space. The Cisco TelePresence Meeting solution enables users to have a live, face-to-face meeting experience as if they were all in the same room together, empowering them to interact and collaborate like never before.
2. 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 as Polycom, 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).
3. 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.
3.1 VISION
A minimum system usually includes visual feedback. 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 convincing 3D 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.
3.2 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 sound is better still.
3.3 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