TELEPRESENCE HOW TO CREATE A FEELING OF PRESENCE AT DISTANCE USING TWO-WAY VIDEO/AUDIO?
Hilding Sponberg Gjøvik University College, Norway Communication and dreams
“To be able to talk to a person who is not present, is also one of mankind’s oldest dreams, the beginning of which go back to the mists of mythology and fairy tales. Reflections in fluids, crystal balls and magic mirrors such as the mirror on the wall in Snow White (Grimm brothers 1812) are examples of fantacy metaphors for “audio-visual’ distance communication.”[2]. (This is part of the introduction of my colleague Claus Jørgen Knudsen‟s recent thesis
for the degree of Doctor of Technology with title „TELEPRESENCE Production‟ – Stockholm September 2004. These dreams have now come true……
Abstract
How to create the feeling of presence using two-way video/audio in communication? Is it possible to obtain the feeling of «reality» in the virtual space? In this paper, the author tries to answer these questions presenting experiences from a research-based course within pedagogical use of videoconferencing – two-way video/audio. The results are based on 5 years of cooperation between Gjøvik University College (GUC), Norway and Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. The course is called Netbased Multimedia and the idea of the content and implementation in the learning process, is to discover the parameters for making the technology transparent i.e. to create such an involvement and interaction during the communication processes as to forget cameras, monitors and cables – feeling real presence in our joint virtual space. In other words, we try to create what we call TELEPRESENCE. Our experiences are, that it IS possible to create TELEPRESENCE even with simple technology and low bandwidths. The results depend, not so much on the technology, as it does on the content, the pedagogic planning and the proper use of the technology.
Introduction
In communicative processes, whether in a classroom, a meeting, on Internet, during two-way video/audio, humans always try to do as best as they can in order to achieve interaction and positive feelings on doing something together. Let us call this feeling PRESENCE. Many people talk about quality of the technology and/or being physically close to people as key issues for the feeling of presence. Heeter [6] state that «Perfectly mediated sensory stimuli do not automatically induce continuous presence». There is much more to it than that. The feeling of PRESENCE is, first of all, a mental process and depends on a number of factors and preconditions, such as:
Cohesion and trust among co-present partners, Bradner and Mark [5] Ability for imagination may be different from individual to individual – easily be «carried away», to feel identification with fictional characters in a story Enlund [1] The emotional state at a specific moment [1]
A conscious decision to temporarily accept something as real , often called the «willing suspension of disbelief» – e.g. «decide» to forget reality and become engaged in what's happening on the stage in the theatre or a film [1] A good storey teller Content And many other factors
A variety of special and outstanding happenings may also lead to the feeling of presence: The first telephone operators had a very strong feeling of presence when connecting telephone lines between people. Possibly the excitement on having the opportunity to speak with people at a distance was the most important factor. The author himself had that tremendous feeling of presence when TV entered our lives around the sixties. The author have experienced feelings of presence when implementing chat net-meetings on Internet with course groups, particular when participants start more social talk, talking about their own lives and activities. Once a participant said: “I never learned a teacher to know as well in any class-room as I did in this net-based course…….”
On this background, we will have a look into digital communication and concentrate on the use of two-way video/audio and see how feelings of PRESENCE may turn up as a result of the combination of technology, pedagogy, psychology and content in a storey. This will be done, based on experiences from the previous mentioned course, Netbased MultiMedia (NMM) - a joint course between Gjøvik University College (GUC), Norway and Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. The course is valued to 6 ECT credits. Let us call a feeling of PRESENCE through the use of this technology, TELEPRESENCE.
Statements Through the years one has experienced a variety of statements from people, with or without experience in using videoconferencing, such as: The physical classroom is the best arena for learning! Technology creates distance between people! It is important to be able to „touch one another‟ in the same room! It is impossible to mediate body-language through cameras and monitors! For me it is important to feel closeness to my students. Therefore, I cannot use technology in communication!
Do we agree or not?
My statements
The feeling of distance is not dependant on the class-room or technology! We may have the greatest feeling of distance to a teacher in the class-room! We may have the greatest feeling of presence through cameras and monitors! All is dependant on the human and the pedagogy – not the technology or the class-room
Two experiences 1. An experienced pedagogue and psychologist was well prepared for giving lectures through videoconferencing within pedagogy for two classes of continuing education course groups – one local and one remote. After his first lecture he said: «This was the first and last time I use this technology – I want closeness to my students» 2. A young woman psychologist was trained for one our. Then she went home and prepared herself. Two days later she kept the same two classes in «high mood» through 5 hours. So, it IS possible, but people are different. What do we learn from this? Well, in the following we will try to go deeper into the matter and look back on the different issues and experiences given above.
Background
The author has been working with videoconferencing since the late eighties in research projects supported by the Norwegian government, in cooperation with Norwegian Telecom Research Department (the previous name of this research organisation) - and in European distance education projects (Pilot projects within the Leonardo Programme). To-day GUC is implementing decentralised education both in the form of continuing education courses and as complete undergraduate programmes nationally and internationally. Videoconferencing and e-learning platforms are tools used for implementation of the learning processes.
Fig. 1 GUC is implementing videoconferencing
within a large national and international network – both as externally financed projects and as long term implementation of graduate programmes.
The course Netbased Multimedia Objectives of the course
This course was established in order to give students experience in using videoconferencing, utilising it‟s potential for their future employer for meetings, competence development, remote instruction and so on. Also, it has been of interest to make research into the matter in order to investigate new ways of using the technology – „looking into the future‟. Traditionally, we talk about meetings and lectures. However, thanks to the students, a number of new ways of using the technology have been «discovered». Through group projects, the students try to achieve a mutual feeling of TELEPRESENCE between two or more sites in space.
The course implementation
After an initial period with theory within technology, camera- and lighting techniques and storey telling, the students are divided into groups for preparing an exam-project. The groups choose a topic for their project and work in the NMM-lab under guidance from the author and the colleagues in Stockholm – all the time communicating through videoconferencing between local studios and between Gjøvik and Stockholm. «We live as we learn….». All exam projects are being recorded on videotape in Stockholm and Gjøvik. It is therefore possible to demonstrate TELEPRESENCE in both places by replaying these. During the paper presentation, live video clips will be played for the audience for demonstration. The exam is implemented as a communication project where the groups are evaluated at distance, taking into account quality elements, such as: degree of achieved dynamic interaction, storeytelling, proper and intelligent use of technology and excitement of content. Typical chosen topics for the exam projects are: Role play (Criminal cases, flirting, virtual wedding, psychological tests), Remote instruction (Build something, hand drawing, learn how to use a computer program, cooking, flower decorations), competitions («Do you want to become a millionaire?», music competitions, fantacy). Up to now, about 50 different topics have been «invented». Most of these, really, „look into the future‟ of video-based interaction between people at distance.In the following, we will present some of the student project. After that we will discuss the results and the realities. All the pictures are grabbed from video recordings during exams.
Fig. 2. To the left you see an interactive „course‟ in making flower decorations. The target persons are in Stockholm and in a small village in Mid-Norway. The „teacher‟ in the window below sits in studio at Gjøvik University College. This video will be demonstrated. Fig. 3. Below is a student giving remote instructions to Stockholm for making a paper bird –origami. A simultaneous scene. To the left as viewed from Stockholm. To the right as viewed from Gjøvik. Notice the use of cameras for maximum demonstration effects.
Fig.5. To the right
Interactive storytelling and presence production. A variety of distance technologies are being used during communication between KTH and other studios in Gjøvik.
Fig. 6. An illusion… A karate match take place with competitors in different spaces…. This and other illusions will be demonstrated during the presentation.
Discussions
As one will understand, the observations in Stockholm and Gjøvik are different, but still part of the same «play». It is important that we realise this difference so as to give optimum feeling of presence on either side. One of the most important issues is the creation of body language and eye contact. Sponberg, Knudsen, Handberg [3]. Without eye contact, no TELEPRESENCE. However, a number of other factors must be there, such as proper camera windows/frames, audio, camera back-ground, proper written presentation and controlled movements inside a camera frame, taking into account that we are working on relatively narrow band-widths. Even so, the latter is not as crucial as it used to be, since equipment and bandwidths (ISDN and/or Internet) is available at steadily increasing rate. About 350 students have been trough NMM and for the best projects, TELEPRESENCE has really been achieved. Statements, such as: This was fun. I forgot it was an exam….! - This is the best course I have attended since I was in primary school! - I never attended a course where I could really be creative on my own premises! Before I close my paper, I want to bring forward, some summarised conclusions from Claus Knudsen‟s doctorate thesis by September 2004:
Knowledge about physical and extended spaces and bodies and of the shifting of attention between these is important in presence production.
Well planned design of physical and virtual spaces enhances the sense of presence. Coherent design and production of mediated embodiment can enhance the sense of presence. Conscious use of content characteristics, e.g., good storytelling, can enhance the sense of presence. Different communication modes need the support of different combinations of presence production factors. Even technically poorly mediated communication may support a sense of presence and reality if the storytelling is good. The human sensory environment should be supported by a sense of non-mediation, technological transparency, on the plane of discourse. The results indicate that individual differences influence the sense of presence and reality.
The perception of video mediated communication evolves as people become daily users. People seem to intuitively begin to interpret new types of mediated cues, adding what is missing in comparison to a real time physical communication experience.
Final conclusion The experiences from NMM, demonstrates that videoconferencing may be used in a great variety of new ways in the future. Remote instruction. The students have been implementing projects where complex and tiny operations could be executed by remote guidance. Many projects have proved this. Among the projects, we also find remote training in using different types of software, varying from end-user software to active computer programming. Interactive entertainment. As available bandwidth is increasing, we believe interactive entertainment in the form of role play, competitions and music performances will come. Interactive news. Some projects created a choice of news in society, where the viewer not only is a viewer, but may communicate directly with the news production (This may be further into the future…) Joint parties with friends and family. Videoconferencing will be part of the multimedia infrastructure in any home in the future. It will become quite usual arranging parties at distance. Some day, one wall in the family’s media-room will be a wide screen. People will appear in natural size on the screen from floor to ceiling.
I will end my paper with the beginning statement in Heeter [6]: «We look for ways technology can more and more closely approximate human sensory experience, then examine the impact of those technologies on presence, extending understanding of human perception and technological capacities to create realistic sensory stimuli».
References 1. ENLUND, Nils The Production of Presence – Distance Techniques in Education, Publishing and Art. 2. KNUDSEN, Claus Jørgen Presence Production. Thesis for the degree of Doctor of technology. The thesis may be downloaded from: Presence Production
3. SPONBERG, Hilding, KNUDSEN, Claus J, HANDBERG, Leif New Learning Modes in the Production of Presence – Distance Techniques for Education. ICDE Dusseldorf 2001 4. OSSIANNILSSON, Ebba, SPONBERG, Hilding e-Learning – Reality and/or Dreams? EDEN Granada 2002 5. BRADNER, Erin, Mar, Gloria (2001) Social Presence with Video and Application Sharing 6. HEETER, Carrie (2002) Reflections on real Presence by a Virtual Person. Submitted for publication in: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments 2002. 7. http://www.presence-research.org/ Online papers and research on PRESENCE 8. http://www.hig.no 9. http://www.kth.se Author Assistant Professor Hilding Sponberg Gjøvik University College Department of Technology P.O.Box 191 2802 Gjøvik Norway hilding.sponberg@hig.no www.hig.no/~hildings www.hig.no/at/nmm (In Norwegian. Here you may find the papers [1] and [3]) - and other links to Presence Production – amongst others Heeter and Bradner under „Online Papers‟)