What is it?
Telepresence refers to a collection of technologies that enable a person or group of people to feel that they are present in a different location from their physical one. A participant’s position, voice, movements, and actions are recorded and transmitted in real time to the remote location(s) where they are replayed immediately, creating the illusion that the participant is present. In some applications telepresence can be used to directly control remote machines such as unmanned vehicles and robots.
Today’s corporate telepresence solutions combine extremely high-quality audio and video communications with nearly identical physical room environments at each remote location. Common room design features, lighting, and furniture help to create the impression of a shared meeting experience for all participants.
Telepresence technologies offer a significantly improved experience over traditional videoconferencing but the improvements come at a price. A single screen for one-on-one meetings and remote locations can cost around US$80,000, and a larger-scale system capable of supporting meetings of 12 or more people can cost upwards of US$300,000.
Despite the costs, telepresence offers some compelling business benefits. The ‘near-life’ meeting communications it delivers can significantly reduce travel costs, save money and at the same time reduce an organization’s carbon impact. Secondary benefits include improvements to the experience of collaboration, increasingly seen as essential in modern organizations, and increased job satisfaction for employees as a result of a decreased travel burden.
The cutting-edge of telepresence technology goes beyond the meeting room. In these specialized applications users are presented with a realistic simulated environment that allows them to actually control vehicles, tools, and machines in the real world as if they were physically present. The control of remote robots by doctors to carry out surgical procedures, and the piloting of unmanned vehicles by human crew in simulators are examples of this.
To learn more about telepresence, download our full Foresight PDF file (
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