Telepresence - - - Current and Future Technologies for Collaboration Gerald

Telepresence is the art of enabling social proximity despite geographical or temporal distances through the integration of computer, audio-visual, and telecommunications technologies. The Ontario Telepresence Project (OTP) has constructed a variety of software and hardware systems to support telepresence applications and it was the mandate of the project to deploy these applications in the field to evaluate their acceptance and use by people in an office environment. The primary application was the Telepresence Media Space (TMS), a system for computer-mediated intra-site and inter-site synchronous audio/video (A/V) communications employing strategically placed cameras and monitors. Beginning with conventional 112 Kb/s H.261 dial-up A/V codecs for long haul connections, OTP moved its applications to a trial 45 Mb/s ATM network for long haul A/V and data connections and explored a number of uses of its technologies in the context of this emerging telecommunications capability. This paper describes the OTP approach and experiences in the transition from current telecommunications technology to future technologies, and the how the two technologies can co-exist. Numerous observations are made for end user applications such as: point-to-point and multipoint meetings; virtual open office; shared public spaces; and remote lecturing.