"Being in on the Action" in Mobile Robotic Telepresence: Rethinking Presence in Hybrid Participation

Boudouraki, Andriana; Fischer, Joel E.; Reeves, Stuart; Rintel, Sean

Abstract

Mobile Robotic Telepresence (MRP) systems afford remote communication with an embodied physicality and autonomous mobility, which is thought to be useful for creating a sense of presence in hybrid activities. In this paper, drawing on phenomenology, we interviewed seven long term users of MRP to understand the lived experience of participating in hybrid spaces through a telepresence robot. The users' accounts show how the capabilities of the robot impact interactions, and how telepresence differs from in-person presence. Whilst not feeling as if they were really there, users felt present when they were being able to participate in local action and be treated as present. They also report standing out and being subject to behaviour amounting to 'othering'. We argue that these experiences point to a need for future work on telepresence to focus on giving remote users the means to exercise autonomy in ways that enable them to participate --- to be 'in on the action' --- rather than in ways that simply simulate being in-person.

Citation

Boudouraki, A., Fischer, J. E., Reeves, S., & Rintel, S. (2023, March). "Being in on the Action" in Mobile Robotic Telepresence: Rethinking Presence in Hybrid Participation. Presented at 18th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI), Stockholm, Sweden

• Presentation Conference Type: Edited Proceedings
• Conference Name: 18th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human Robot Interaction (HRI)
• Start Date: Mar 13, 2023
• End Date: Mar 16, 2023
• Acceptance Date: Dec 2, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Mar 13, 2023
• Publication Date: Mar 13, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jan 6, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 6, 2023
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Pages: 63-71
• Book Title: HRI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction
• ISBN: 9781450399647
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3568162.3576961
• Keywords: videoconferencing; hybrid; remote participation; distributed teams; phenomenology; being there
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/15717582
• Publisher URL: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3568162.3576961