VR Telepresence Interface for Outdoor Activities

In collaboration with Yasamin Heshmat, Xiaoxuan (Anty) Xiong, Carman Neustaedter, Anthony Tang, Bernhard E. Riecke, and Lillian Yang

Left: A telepresence robot in an outdoor park has a 360° camera mounted to the top of it. This 360° camera captures the robot's environment and streams it to a remote user's VR headset, allowing them to immserse themself in the robot's environment. Right: A panorama of the 360° view captured by the 360° camera mounted on the robot.

A man in an outdoor park stands beside his remote friend, who is embodied in the park as a telepresence robot.

People often enjoy sharing outdoor activities together such as walking and hiking. However, when family and friends are separated by distance it can be difficult if not impossible to share such activities. We explore this design space by investigating the benefits and challenges of using a telepresence robot to support outdoor leisure activities. In our study, participants participated in the outdoor activity of geocaching where one person geocached with the help of a remote partner via a telepresence robot. We compared a wide field of view (WFOV) camera to a 360° camera. Results show the benefits of having a physical embodiment and a sense of immersion with the 360° view. Yet challenges related to a lack of environmental awareness, safety issues, and privacy concerns resulting from bystander interactions. These findings illustrate the need to design telepresence robots with the environment and public in mind to provide an enhanced sensory experience while balancing safety and privacy issues resulting from being amongst the general public.

Publications

Heshmat, Y., Jones, B., Xiong, X., Neustaedter, C., Tang, A., Riecke, B.E., and Yang, L. Geocaching with a Beam: Shared Outdoor Activities through a Telepresence Robot with 360 Degree Viewing. In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2018), ACM.
Download PDF | Publication Link
Neustaedter, C., Heshmat, Y., Jones, B., Forghani, A., and Xiong, X. Shared Family Experiences over Distance in the Outdoors. In HCI Outdoors: Theory, Design, Methods and Applications, Springer.
Publication Link
Heshmat, Y., Jones, B., and Neustaedter, C. 360° View for Sharing Geocaching Experience with a Telepresence Robot. In Social VR: A New Medium for Remote Communication and Collaboration (Workshop at CHI 2020).
Download PDF | Publication Link
Jones, B., Zhang, Y., Wong, P.N.Y., Rintel, S., and Heshmat, Y. VR-Enabled Telepresence as a Bridge for People, Environments, and Experiences. In Social VR: A New Medium for Remote Communication and Collaboration (Workshop at CHI 2020).
Download PDF | Publication Link