Telepresence

TLDR

Telepresence is the perception of presence in remote or simulated sites and is a design ideal for synthetic environments, yet the literature lacks a precise definition, with debates between technological and psychological approaches. The study seeks to develop a parsimonious model of telepresence by identifying its three types—simple, cybernetic, and experiential—and proposing an integrative attentional resource framework for future human‑machine interfaces. The authors classify telepresence into simple, cybernetic, and experiential types, review experiential telepresence origins and theories, and introduce a structured attentional resource model to explain it. Experiential telepresence is deemed the most interesting and promising definition among the three identified types.

Abstract

Telepresence, the perception of presence within a physically remote or simulated site, has been identified as a design ideal for synthetic environments. However, confusion exists within the literature about the precise definition of telepresence. Furthermore, there is a need for a plausible and parsimonious model of telepresence. This paper identifies three types of telepresence extant in the literature: simple telepresence, cybernetic telepresence, and experiential telepresence. The third definition is the most interesting. This paper reviews the origins of experiential telepresence and the theoretical approaches commonly used to explain it. One can term these technological approaches, which emphasize the role of control/display technology, and psychological approaches, which identify experiential telepresence with known psychological phenomena. Finally, the paper presents and discusses an integrative approach to telepresence featuring a structured attentional resource model. Actual or potential applications of this research include the design of future human-machine interfaces for teleoperated robots and virtual reality systems.