Telepresence for the Teleworkplace: Livingin versus visiting Cyberspace Making Telepresence a Realit

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Telepresence for the TeleworkplaceLiving-in
versus visiting CyberspaceMaking Telepresence a
Reality

• Gordon Bell
• (gbell_at_microsoft.com)
• Bay Area Research Center
• Microsoft Research
• http//www.research.microsoft.com/users/gbell

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Therapy from long distance debated- SJ Mercury
5 April 1998http//www.sjmercury.com/breaking/h
eadline1/056580.htm
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In Silicon Valley, the Internet is all we think
about. Is it just greed???

• The internet has created (redistributing) more
  wealth than any other phenomena.
• 200 B valuation 2 B sales -0.2M return.
• WWW is grossly over-hyped!
• Long run, the hype is likely to be justified.
• USA is lt5 of the world population.
• Silicon Valley is lt0.01 of this population.
  
• More people learning English in China than speak
  it in the rest of the world

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Some tele-tales
Multi-media Media Machine
CyberAllencoding everybit
Tele-xe.g. telemedicine, Distributed design
Millibill Tele-art, rides, performance,
interactivetelevision???
Paperlessness
Intrastructure support
Administrivia
THE WORKTelework work
Telepresence(comoho)
Telemeetings
Telepresentations
Teleconferencing
Telelearning
Telecollaboration
presence
Commercial, mobile and home office
audio eye-tracking gaze avatars
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The Space of Telepresencefor work
Mechanisms (how) Synchronous Asynchronous
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 ... Voice
Videomail Video lectures courses
Profession
person-computer 11 personal communication 2
site-site conferencing n site conferencing 1p
broadcasts computer management distributed
groups with gt2, 10, lt100,
view (troll) hallways with informal
interaction 1 1 videophone calls for (problem
solving, authoring) interviews classes formal
meetings (lectures, conferences, stockholder
meetings, town halls, etc..)
Type of Work (What)
Group Interaction (Who)
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In a decade we can/will have

• 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 todays 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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The evolution of wireless data standards
UMTS 2Mbps
2.0
0.8
0.4
EDGE 384kbps
0.2
GPRS 115kbps
0.1
HSCSD 57.6kbps
Circuit data lt9.6kbps
0
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
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
IP Dial tone (Internet, phone, videophone) gt1.5
Mbps
POTS (legacy services)
NT Server for comm/network, POTS/IP gateway,
file, print, compute
LAN
NC
PC
PC
NC, NetPC, Xterm, etc.
...
...
Phone
Phone
Phone
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Not shown ECG GPS
Libretto, .5mm
PCS Pilot
Compass altimeter
Libretto PS, Ricoh Camera Swiss Army Knife
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Audio, pix, T, P, ECG, location, physiological
parameters1 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)

• 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 communication

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MotivationTelepresentations

• Presenter and/or audience telepresent

NOT meeting or collaboration settings Forget the
nasty social issues!
Mostly one-way
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TelepresentationElements

• Slides
• Audio
• Video
• Script, text comments, hyperlinks,etc.

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TelepresentationsThe Essentials

• Slide and audio a must
• Add some video (low quality) to make us feel
  good
• Storage and transmission costs low

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TelepresentationsThe Killer App

• Increased attendance lower travel costs
• Practical and low-cost NOW
• e.g. ACM97 - 2,000 visitors in real space, 20,000
  visitors on Internethttp//research.microsoft.com
  /acm97

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This talk

• Would you like to pause, rewind, browse?
• Do you wish you could have seen this
• At home?
• At another time?
• How much does a present speaker add? How much
  would you pay for real presence?

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A word about storage CDs hold 4 near VHS
quality videos (300 Kbps)
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Telepresentation Features

• Essential
• High quality audio and Graphics aka slides
• Important
• Some essence of the presenter - even a few still
  images
• Non-Essential
• Video of the presenter
• Two-way communication

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Telepresentations will be a well-defined app by
2001.

• ACM97 was the first telepresented conference with
  Mbone multicast servers that host the
  conference cf. http//www.research.microsoft.com/a
  cm97
• 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

• Dont believe in collaboration as much as just
  plain communication.
• The next killer app is tele-meetings AKA
  videoconferencing
• Interested in desktop 11 up to 16 (larger
  numbers turns into presentations with floor
  control)

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By April 1, 2001 videophones will ship in 50 of
the PCs and be in use.

• Gordon Bell vs Jim Gray1996 (one paper, loser
  gets fed)

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Conference Rooms with Teleconferencing
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Tools for telecollaboration

• MOOs and MUDs Comic Chat, VWorlds
• Powerpoint conference record,
• Precept mbone multicasting UNIX toolset
• NetShow Live On demand video 28.8 - 300 K
• ICQ -- serendipity instant communication
• CuSeeMe audio, video, whiteboard
• NetMeeting audio, 2 way video, chat, whiteboard,
  program sharing
• Placeware for large scale meetings,
  presentations, and collaborations
• Latitude MeetingPlace phone data conference
• Active Touch web phone data conference

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Telecollaboration

• Low latency, high bandwidth for interactivity,
  feeling, nuances
• Channels
• speech (including spatialization)
• the work I.e. document, diagram, program,
  presentation, etc.
• video output forces attendance and holds
  attention
• video input state of the receiver cues
• whiteboard
• chat channels

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Telework It takes screens, sound, and
bandwidth, stupid
http//research.microsoft.com/barc/GBell/
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Limits of Computer Supported Collaborative Work
-- CSCW

• We dont 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
  tasksa better model of the problem
• Limited task parallelism e.g. presentations
• Brooks Law matters!

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How to Fail at Videoconferencing

• Lack of ubiquity it must obey Metcalfes 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.
• The targets audio quality, 3-D in every sense,
  and gaze awareness

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Four steps to video-telephony enabling
telemeetings

• 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 GemmellMicrosoft 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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Head adjustment inspiriationMoving Mona
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More eye contact gets you

• 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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Perceiving gaze

• People dont stare at a fixed point series of
  1/3 sec glances
• Eye contact really look all around face, esp.
  eyes and mouth.
• Eye contact is anything around the face.
• Mostly determined from eyes/nose

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Majic
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½ Silvered-mirror
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Conclusion

• Gaze awareness is important to video-conferencing
• 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) Self-control informal
(verbal) Sally Field
Analyticals.. being right, detailed analretentiv
es
Driversresults oriented megalomaniacs
Managing Interpersonal Relationships(MIR) 2D
Model
broadcast- push
email
Amiablesconsensusbuilders spinelesswimps
Expressives...want recognition, need
contact psychotics
--------------chat----------------
Intensity
Souter 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

• Video
• Audio
• Slides, images, web pages
• Text chat
• Shared applications
• Whiteboards
• Voting, question taking

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Time-shifting beats Space-shifting

• Gets around scheduling problems
• Worlds time zones!

• Lets me pause, rewind, browse, play at faster
  speeds

• Immortality

• Time-shifting requires STORAGE !!!

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Todays 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

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Next killer app distributed telemeetings?

• Compete with the phone
• Cheaper long distance rates
• Higher audio quality - e.g. surround sound

• Features
• multi-party with rendezvous setup
• Not just audio
• shared documents, applications, video, etc

• Why not record everything too ?

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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
• 11 person-person communication
• nm 2-site-site video conference
• 1n-site broadcasting or Mbone narrowcasting
• distributed group. gt2 - 5 - 10 - 100
• ----
• person-computer
• computer management (no persons)

• What
• view (troll) hallways, seeking interaction
• 11 interview, status report, etc.
• 1-6 videophone calls for (design, problem
  solving, authoring)
• hold staff meetings with 1 or more members
  distributed
• attend classes
• formal meetings (lectures, conferences,
  stockholder meetings, town halls, etc..)

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Telepresence Mechanisms (for Work)
Synchronous Internet phone phone
conferencing Internet Videophone RealAudio
Overhead graphics Shared applications Whiteboard
s CU SeeMe on POTS IP Videophone Mbone Video
conferencing Room Video conferencing Remote Rover
(Robot Videophone)
Asynchronous voice mailSTT email ... TTS Home
pages replace bulletin boards, file transport,
and document distribution Schedule
Notes Voice and Video email Telepresentations
(meetings, presentations, courses)
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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
• Meeting in real or virtual world

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Active Touch Live Collaboration Architecture
Collaboration Clustering Server
Data Collaboration Server
Data Collaboration Server
Data Collaboration Server
CTI Server
CTI Server
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Active Touch Data Collaboration Services
Data Collaboration Server
Chat
Doc Review
Interactive Forms
Application Sharing
Desktop Sharing
To CTI Servers
Presentation
Web Tour
Application Viewing
Launch NetMeeting
Conf. Control
Multipoint Comm. Service
HTTP
TCP/IP
Web Server
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Active Touch Administration and Enterprise
Integration
Admin and EI
Archive Module
Directory Service Module
Billing Accounting
Object Storage
Security Module
Public Key Infrastructure
Enterprise Data Repository
Active Directory Service (LDAP)
Database
Database
Third Party Repository
Database
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Collaboration Application Server Criteria

• Robust, scalable
• Data Telephony Tight Integration
• Web Integration
• Easy-To-Use
• Security
• Open Standards (HTTP, TSAPI, LDAP, T.120,
  Encryption)
• Enterprise Application Integration
• Performance
• High Availability
• Customizable

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Alternative Computing Futures

• Metropolis (1926)

• Forbidden Planet (1956)

• 2001 (1968)

Photos courtesy of Microsoft Cinemania
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Problems socio vs technical

• 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 11
• unclear that many people want it they simply
  need the contact with people

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Good News

• 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 useThis will change education!
• Telecollaboration tools work for simple apps and
  will improve

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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
  time-shifting so that people can be in two places
  at the same time

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The End