Human Factors Issues on the Design of Telepresence Systems

Abstract

The overall aim of this work is to provide some guidelines for the design of tele-presence systems from a human factors point of view. Developers of such human-machine systems face at least two major problems: There are hardly any standard input devices, and guiding design principles are almost missing. Further, most often telepresence systems should enable both a high degree of performance and a high sensation of presence, and yet the relationship between these two variables is still a subject of research. To cope with some of the problems, two experimental studies are presented. Each focuses on a different aspect of interface design, which is of widespread interest in the field of telepresence systems. The first is related to the control of multiple degrees of freedom and the second refers to bimanual input control. Beyond this work, a meta-analytical study is presented to describe the relationship between presence and performance more precisely. Certainly there are more issues that have to be studied (e.g., perceptual aspects) to guide the design of telepresence systems. To provide a framework for these and further human factor aspects, a computer based design guide is suggested at the end. This tool addresses system developers and assists in realizing new interfaces more effectively.