Telepresence for the
Teleworkplace:
Living-in versus visiting
Cyberspace…
Making Telepresence a Reality
Gordon Bell
(gbell@microsoft.com)
Bay Area Research Center
Microsoft Research
http://www.research.microsoft.com/users/gbell
Telework
Telework
“Therapy from long distance
debated”
- SJ Mercury 5 April 1998
http://www.sjmercury.com/breaking/headline1/056580.htm
Telework
Multi-media Media Machine
CyberAll
encoding everybit
Some tele-tales
Millibill: Tele-art, rides,
performance, interactive Paperlessness Intrastructure
television???
& support
Administrivia
Telepresence
(comoho*)
Telepresentations
Tele-x
e.g. telemedicine,
Distributed design
THE WORK:
Telework &
work
Telemeetings
Teleconferencing
Telelearning
*Commercial, mobile and home office
Telecollaboration
“presence”
audio eye-tracking gaze avatars
Mechanisms
(how)
Synchronous
The Space of
Telepresence
for work
ICQ, Internet phone & phone conf.
RealAudio & simple graphics
Workspace for remote program control
Whiteboard (groups)
...
Videophone
Remote Rover (Robot Videophone)
email
Formal presentations sans video
Asynchronous
...
Voice & Videomail
Video lectures & courses
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In a decade we can/will have:
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More powerful personal computers
– processing 10-100x
– 4x resolution (2K x 2K);
– Very large displays…
everywhere… to be ever anywhere telepresent
– storage of one terabyte
Additional small e.g. palm, camera, watch “platforms” to
hold a plethora of evolving software
adequate networking????
– ubiquitous access = today’s fast LANs
– Mobility according to standards and plans
One chip, networked platforms including light bulbs,
cameras everywhere, etc.
more cyberization… the challenge… interfacing platforms
and people.
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UMTS
2Mbps
The evolution of
2.0
wireless data standards
0.8
0.4
0.2
0.1
0
EDGE
384kbps
GPRS
115kbps
HSCSD
Circuit data 57.6kbps
<9.6kbps
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001Telework
2002
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Living in Cyberspace:
the environment for
telepresence / telework
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Telemeeting clone
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Telework
clones…
being in
more
than one
place at
the same
time
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Intrastructure
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SOHO (small office, home office)
network computing environment
POTS
(legacy services)
IP Dial tone (Internet, phone,
videophone) >1.5 Mbps
NT Server for:
comm/network, POTS/IP
gateway, file, print, compute
LAN
PC
Phone
...
PC
Phone
...
NC*
Phone
*NC, NetPC,
Xterm, etc.
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Libretto,
.5mm
Not shown:
ECG;
PCS; Pilot
GPS;
Compass;
altimeter
Libretto PS,
Ricoh Camera;
Swiss Army
Knife
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Audio, pix, T, P, ECG, location,
physiological parameters…
1 GB
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Telepresentations: The 2nd killer app?
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Telepresentations
“Being There (e.g. meeting, lecture, confererene)
Without Really Being There (or Then)”

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
Presenter or audience need not be
physically present
Reach a wider audience
 “I have a schedule conflict.”
 Anybody with a web connection can
participate
Reduce costs
 No need to travel to attend or
participate in a presentation
Education & training, corporate
Telework
communication
Telework
Telepresentation
Elements



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Slides
Audio
Video
Script,
text comments,
hyperlinks,
etc.
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Telework
Telepresentations will be a
well-defined app by 2001.

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ACM97 was the first telepresented
conference with Mbone multicast &
servers that host the conference cf.
http://www.research.microsoft.com/acm97
Bet: More people will view the conference
from Cyberspace than that attended it.
Big question: will telepresentation
technology AKA tele-learning affect
learning and education?
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Telecollaboration…
The next “killer tele-app”??
Or just a tremendous challenge
interacting to achieve a common
objective …
basically, its communications
enabling or disabling people
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Perspective
Don’t believe in “collaboration” as much as
just plain communication.
 The next killer app is tele-meetings AKA
“videoconferencing”
 Interested in desktop 1:1 up to 1:6
(larger numbers turns into presentations with
floor control)

Telework
“
By April 1, 2001
videophones will ship in
50% of the PCs
and be in use.
”
Gordon Bell vs Jim Gray
1996 (one paper,
loser gets fed)
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Conference Rooms with Teleconferencing
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Telework: It takes screens,
sound, and bandwidth, stupid
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http://research.microsoft.com/barc/GBell/
Limits of Computer Supported
Collaborative Work -- CSCW
We don’t understand collaboration
 We do it for limited domains e.g. chip design, some
software, 777s if task is partitionable
 “One person has the mouse” problem
 Camera is important NOT for communication,
but and to keep & force (hold) attention
plus communicating a few cues (did they “get it”),
 Parallel processing & single threading of tasks…
a better model of the problem
 Limited task parallelism e.g. presentations
 Brook’s Law matters!

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How to Fail at Videoconferencing
Lack of ubiquity: it must obey Metcalfe’s Law
 Call set up: hard, time-consuming, requires
training
 Small screens, lack of spatiality, destroy
visual cues
 No gaze awareness, limit screen area; only
2-D figures or avatars
 Audio: high latency and poor quality
 Fail to overcome the adequacy of the phone:
ubiquitous, no manuals or training, low
latency, ok audio.
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 The targets: audio quality, 3-D in every
sense,
and gaze awareness

Four steps to video-telephony
enabling telemeetings

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Very low cost IP telephony becomes
ubiquitous
Evolve audio to provide spatial
awareness aka stereo, quad, etc.
Make recording easy to do that will
enable meeting persistence and
minutes
Add multi-party
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Gaze-corrected Videoconferencing
Jim Gemmell
Microsoft Bay Area Research Center
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Videoconferencing: not looking into the
camera
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Not looking at camera: never eye
contact
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Looking into the camera:
always eye-contact
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More eye contact gets you:
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More job offers from interviews
More help when you ask for it
More powers of pursuasion
Make you seem more: friendly, self-confident,
natural, mature, sincere
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Majic
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½ Silvered-mirror
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Conclusion
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Gaze awareness is important to videoconferencing
Software-only technique
Vision: more work to make it robust, faster
Explore use of space with multi-party
conferencing
Great audio
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Attending Several Simultaneous Meetings
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But does anyone want telework?
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A People Model:
Who wants to telework?
Spock
formal
(in writing)
Analyticals..
being right,
detailed
email
Drivers…
results oriented
broadcast
- push
megalomaniacs
Self-control
anal
retentives
informal
(verbal)
Amiables…
consensus
builders
Expressives...
want
recognition,
need contact
Managing
Interpersonal
Relationships
(MIR)
2D Model
--------------chat---------------Sally Field
spineless
wimps
Souter
psychotics
Evangelism
Swaggert
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The End
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Outline

Telepresence and Telework
– Teleworking environment
– Overhead: Support & Administrivia
– The “work”
 Telepresence dimensions
 Telepresentations: the 2nd killer app!
 Telecollaboration: killer app to come?
 “The work”
 Is it for everyone?
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What is Telepresence?

Being there without really
being there or then

Injecting
your
presence
into tele-space

Being immersed in the
tele-space
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Telepresence Components

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Video
Audio
Slides, images, web
pages
Text chat
Shared applications
Whiteboards
Voting, question taking
Telework
Time-shifting beats Space-shifting

Gets around scheduling
problems
– World’s time zones!

Lets me pause,
rewind, browse, play
at faster speeds

Immortality

Time-shifting requires STORAGE !!!Telework
Today’s killer app : Telepresentations

One-way mostly
– Not meeting or
collaboration settings
– forget the network
latencies and messy
social issues
 Presenter and/or
audience telepresent

Slides and audio get you 99%
and are bandwidth cheap

Practical and low cost now
Telework
Telework = (cyber) work + telepresence
… being there while being here, and at
some other time.

Goal: teleoffice/teleworkplace = workplace office
 The teleworkplace is ideally just a “remote office” W/O
– Communication, computer, and network support!
– Team interactions for work! CSCW is a “rat hole”!
– Interaction at coffee, meeting rooms, … in offices
– Administrative support for phones, information
(especially paper) management, keeping track of
 Always on & always connected to intranet/intranet ...!
 Telecommunication aka phone & email -- the first, “killer
apps”
 Telepresentations -- the 2nd “killer app”
 Tele-collaboration -- the “killer app” to come
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Animatron...
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Telework &
communications dimensions
•Who and how many are interacting?
•What is the nature of the interaction?
•Which professions?
•Mechanisms: How are they interacting?
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Telepresence: who and what
WHO
1:1 person-person
communication
What
view (troll) hallways,
“seeking interaction”
1:1 interview, status report,
etc.
1-6 videophone calls for
1:n-site broadcasting or
(design, problem solving,
Mbone narrowcasting
authoring)
distributed group. >2 - 5 - hold staff meetings with 1 or
more members
10 - 100
distributed
---attend classes
person-computer
formal meetings (lectures,
conferences, stockholder
computer management (no meetings, town halls,
persons)
etc..)
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n:m 2-site-site video
conference
Telepresence Mechanisms (for Work)
Synchronous
Internet phone &
phone conferencing
Internet Videophone
RealAudio &
Overhead graphics
Shared applications
Whiteboards
CU SeeMe on POTS…
IP Videophone
Mbone Video conferencing
Room Video conferencing
Remote Rover
(Robot Videophone)
Asynchronous
voice mail…STT
email ... TTS
Home pages replace
bulletin boards, file
transport, and document
distribution
Schedule & “Notes”
Voice and Video “email”
Telepresentations
(meetings, presentations,
& courses)
Telework
Voice and Visual Alternatives (in
order of increasing B/W)
Voice*
 TTS (synthetic or
speaker driven)
 4 Kb-64 Kb codec
of real voice
 Stereo of real voice
 Stereo with sound
source
identification
 Projection into
arbitrary virtual
world environment
*variable speed
Visual AKA Video*
 Text avatar (simple… photo)
 Avatar with voice sync
 Avatar of real person
 Video codec based projection
– “Postage stamp” … POTS
– “Mailing label” … ISDN or 2x
POTS
– Compressed VHS (200 Kbps)
– MPEG 2 (1- 4 Mbps)
 Speaker tracking, 1-n cameras
 VR image of a large space
 3d images “holodeck”
 Animatron e.g. Barney
 Mobile Animatron
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*Meeting in real or virtual world
Alternative Computing
Futures
• Metropolis (1926)
• Forbidden Planet (1956)
• 2001 (1968)
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Photos courtesy of Microsoft Cinemania
Problems: socio vs technical
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Isolation & loneliness
– need for communication/stimulation
– chance meetings -- serendipity of ideas
– loss of group/teamwork skills
– danger of becoming “terminal”
interruptions & focus
lack of support staff to help, answer ?s
supervision and ability to have 1:1
unclear that many people want it…
they simply need the contact with people
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Good News
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Bandwidth will come
Audio and video compression is
improving to live within POTS limit
Videophones will be built-into all
PCs within 5 years at 0 cost
Telepresentations are here for
“live” and “on demand” use
This will change education!
Telecollaboration tools work for
Telework
simple apps… and will improve
Telepresence: 5, 10, … 50 year goals
hold a meeting of type, m
university or technical course
interview, staff meeting, co-ordination, board
meeting, annual meeting, “town hall”,
with p, distributed persons
with as much interactivity, I, and feeling, f
such that people prefer being telepresent; and
meetings are provably more productive
meetings will evolve to be asynchronous versus
traditional synchronous enabling full timeshifting so that people can be in two places at
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the same time
The End
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