Telepresence
Telepresence describes a high-quality implementation of video communication technology and is to be distinguished from the term telepresence .
background
The market research institute Wainhouse Research , leading in the field of video communication, defines telepresence as a "video conference experience that creates the illusion that the interlocutors connected via video are also sitting in the same room." (Orig .: "A videoconferencing experience that creates the illusion that the remote participants are." in the same room with you. " )
Conveying a realistic atmosphere for conversations distinguishes telepresence and video conference systems . This is achieved through the presentation of the call participants in life size on full HD displays. Gestures and facial expressions can be recognized without restrictions. In addition, the audio is transmitted in CD quality and simultaneously with the picture.
Another important aspect is the arrangement of cameras and screens, which allows natural eye contact . The direction from which the voices of the conversation partners are perceived is also simulated according to the display on the monitors. For example, if a speaker is shown on the far right on the monitor, the voice is also perceived as coming from the right.
In addition to the audiovisual transmission of the call participants, multimedia content, presentations and documents can also be shown on the displays of the telepresence systems. Like in a real meeting, this makes it possible to work together with or on this content.
Beginnings and breakthrough
Digital Video Enterprises and Teleportec presented the first systems that enabled natural eye contact with the video conversation partner in 2005. Here the camera was mounted behind a semi-transparent mirror, onto which the image of the person opposite was projected. A technique that is still used today in teleprompters . The “halving” of the conference room into a real and a virtual half, which is typical for today's immersive systems, is also described for the first time by the Wainhouse Institute using the example of a Destiny Conferencing system from 2005. However, the three companies mentioned did not have the size and capacities to sell and market their solutions globally. They were therefore restricted to the US market. On October 23, 2006, Cisco introduced the Cisco TelePresence 1000 and the Cisco TelePresence 3000, the first telepresence systems that were advertised and sold around the world, making the term telepresence known worldwide. Systems from other globally active manufacturers such as Tandberg or Polycom followed in the following year. The term telepresence was established in Germany by 2007 at the latest. This year, the working group on video conferencing technologies and their application scenarios (VIKTAS) of the German Initiative for Network Information eV (DINI) dealt with the new form of video communication on a large scale for the first time at the VIKTAS day.
Variants of the telepresence systems
The leading providers of telepresence systems such as Cisco, Lifesize and Polycom now usually classify their products in immersive, room and desktop systems.
Immersive systems
Immersive systems represent the top category of telepresence systems. In addition to the technical hardware, the system also includes the complete equipment of the room in which the solution is installed. Immersive systems usually consist of one or three large-format full HD displays (usually 65 inches). Special background walls and a coordinated lighting concept should make the speaker and the environment appear natural and almost three-dimensional. The furniture is also part of the equipment. The control panels for the system are integrated into the tables and can also be used to display documents, presentations or other content. Two conversation participants can be shown life-size per display, so that up to twelve people can confer in life-size format.
Room systems
Telepresence room systems (in English "multipurpose", ie multi-purpose systems) are designed as stand-alone solutions for use in the office or conference room. They usually have one or two large displays (usually between 42 and 65 inches), an integrated camera, microphone and loudspeaker. In systems with two displays, the conversation partners are transmitted to one display, for example, while the second is used to display presentations or other documents.
Single user systems
Telepresence systems for the workplace usually have the dimensions of a larger PC flat screen and can also be used as such. As in the other telepresence systems, the camera, microphone and loudspeaker are integrated.
Transmission quality, protocols and bandwidths
The telepresence solutions from leading manufacturers are standards-based. This means that they use the standardized codecs developed by the ITU or ISO for audio and video transmission. These are the H. standards in video transmission and G.711 , G.722 , MPEG-4 and AAC in audio transmission. The common transmission protocols are H.323 and SIP . The use of the open standards enables telepresence systems to be connected to one another across manufacturers.
Depending on the type of telepresence system, the data transmission rates required for the smooth implementation of a telepresence meeting vary . The bandwidths recommended by the manufacturers for immersive systems are between 12 Mbit / s and 30 Mbit / s. Desktop solutions require bandwidths of around 4 Mbit / s to 6 Mbit / s. The transmission of the camera signal to the display of the other person should take place in less than 300 milliseconds, so that the user perceives an almost instantaneous transmission.
Areas of application of telepresence systems
Telepresence systems are mainly used in business. Globally active companies are starting to set up immersive systems at important locations in order to hold meetings virtually and thus save costs on business travel.
Telepresence technology is also used at universities to expand the possibilities of teaching or to hold scientific conferences in a simple manner.
literature
- PJ Sheppard, GR Walker (Ed.): Telepresence. Springer Science + Business Media BV, Dordrecht 1999, ISBN 978-1-4613-7414-5 .
- Tim Szigeti, Kevin McMenamy, Roland Saville, Alan Glowacki: Cisco TelePresence Fundamentals. Cisco Press, Indianapolis 2009, ISBN 978-1-58705-593-5 .
- Rosi Maria Heller: Telepresence. A Modern Way for Collaborative Work, Dipolmica Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8428-5158-0 .
- Takaya Yuizono, Gustavo Zurita, Nelson Baloian, Tomoo Inoue, Hiroaki Ogata (Eds.): Collaboration Technologies and Social Computing. Springer Verlag, Berlin / Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-662-44650-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Wainhouse Research: Segment Report. Telepresence 2007 (PDF; 359 kB), p. 4
- ^ Wainhouse Research: Emerging Technologies for Teleconferencing and Telepresence, 2005 ( Memento of October 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), p. 2f
- ^ Wainhouse Research: Emerging Technologies for Teleconferencing and Telepresence, 2005 ( Memento of October 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), p. 9
- ↑ IT-Business.de: Meeting on the "Holodeck"
- ^ Computerwoche.de: austerity course at T-Mobile. Employees should travel less
- ↑ crn.de: Virtual business trips save working time
- ^ University of Missouri: Telepresence Service