Abstract
Since reduction of personal contact is key in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, remote communication solutions saw a rise in importance. Next to the more common forms like video and audio conference calls, telepresence solutions are also becoming more popular. Telepresence robots can be remotely driven and allow, with the help of cameras and displays on the robot and the users’ side, face-to-face communication with onsite personal, establishing a remote telepresence. Depending on the model, the height of the robot can be adjusted by the remote user. Even though the effect of the height in relation to onsite people is being researched, the effect on the users’ side has not been examined immensely. Therefore, this work examines the effect of the difference in height between a telepresence robot and its user on the users’ spatial awareness. Subjects have experienced the usage of a telepresence robot driving at a fixed height through a video. Afterwards, they filled out a questionnaire, which asks the user to answer questions about the experience. These questions were regarding the spatial awareness of the user in the remote location, asking them to estimate different parts of the tour. Their estimations were mapped to the users’ height, allowing to correlate the difference in height and the users’ spatial awareness. The work has shown, that only the perceived height of the telepresence robot was affected by the difference in size. However, more tests have to be conducted, to factor in multiple robot heights.
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Gawron, O., Keller, L., Huffstadt, K., Müller, N.H. (2021). Effect of Height in Telepresence Robots on the Users’ Spatial Awareness. In: Zaphiris, P., Ioannou, A. (eds) Learning and Collaboration Technologies: Games and Virtual Environments for Learning. HCII 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12785. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77943-6_17
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