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Remote support in general is a method that saves time and resources. A relatively new and promising technology for remote support that combines video conferencing and physical mobility is that of telepresence systems. The remote assistant, that is, the user of said technology, gains both presence and maneuverability in the distant location. As telepresence systems vary greatly in their design, the question arises as to whether the design influences the perception of the remote assistant. Unlike pure design studies, the present work focuses not only on the design and evaluation of the telepresence system itself, but especially on its perception during a collaborative task involving a human partner visible through the telepresence system. This paper presents two studies in which participants performed an assembly task under the guidance of a remote assistant. The remote assistant was visible through differently designed telepresence systems that were evaluated in terms of social perception and trustworthiness. Four telepresence systems were evaluated in study 1 (N = 32) and five different systems in study 2 (N = 34). The results indicated that similarly designed systems showed only marginal differences, but a system that was designed to transport additional loads and was therefore less agile and rather bulky was rated significantly less positively regarding competence than the other systems. It is particularly noteworthy that it was not the height of the communication medium that was decisive for the rating, but above all, the agility and mobility of the system. These results provide evidence that the design of a telepresence system can influence the social perception of the remote assistant and therefore has implications for the acceptance and use of telepresence systems.

This study presents Portal Display, a screen-based telepresence system that mediates the interaction between two distinct spaces, each using a single display system. The system synchronizes the users’ viewpoint with their head position and orientation to provide stereoscopic vision through this single monitor. This research evaluates the impact of graphically rendered and video-streamed backgrounds and remote user representations on social telepresence, usability, and concentration during conversations and collaborative tasks. Our results indicate that the type of background has a negligible impact on these metrics. However, point cloud streaming of remote users significantly improves social telepresence, usability, and concentration compared with graphical avatars. This study implies that Portal Display can operate more efficiently by substituting the background with graphical rendering and focusing on higher-resolution 3D point cloud streaming for narrower regions for remote user representations. This configuration may be especially advantageous for applications where the remote user’s background is not essential to the task, potentially enhancing social telepresence.

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of interactivity and vividness on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment and their consequent impacts on consumer behavioral responses in a retail furniture VR store context. Considering the lack of VR empirical research, the indirect effect of interactivity and vividness on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment through telepresence and the moderating effect of consumer previous experience with VR are also included.Design/methodology/approachA commercial IKEA VR store was chosen for the study. Head-mounted display (HMD) VR headsets were employed for the VR shopping experience. The study was conducted at a laboratory at a large university in the southeastern United States. A total of 146 college students participated in the study.FindingsVividness had significant positive effects on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment, which in turn influenced attitude towards VR and behavioral intentions. Interactivity did not have positive impacts on perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment. However, it indirectly affected perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment through telepresence. The findings also proved the moderating effect of consumer previous VR experience between interactivity and perceived usefulness and between interactivity and perceived enjoyment. The relationship between attitude and behavioral intentions was also positive.Originality/valueNotwithstanding the benefits of VR in relation to its utilitarian, hedonic, and behavioral values, little is known about consumers' responses towards the usage of VR as a shopping tool. The present study can be considered as a starting point in understanding the usefulness of VR from consumer and managerial perspectives. The findings of VR indicated in the study will help practitioners understand the urgency of adopting VR in a retail setting.

Robotic telepresence is a potential technology to help alleviating the loneliness of elderly people. The impacts of long-term use of telepresence robots in residential care are not well known. We were interested in how using a telepresence robot influences the resident, family members and care workers at a facility, and what challenges and solutions there are for wider adoption of such robots in residential care. With a telepresence robot Double, we arranged a series of three trials in two separate residential care facilities: one 12-week trial in a private facility and two successive 6-week trials in a public facility. In each trial, we installed the telepresence robot in a room of a long-term care home resident for communicating with her/his family members. Based on the results, telepresence robots do increase presence and possibly engagement of family members in residential care, but privacy is a central concern. The mobility of a telepresence robot is hard to utilize in residential care, and to be able to do so, ethical consideration and guidelines are needed. We provide a draft of such ethical guidelines.

Advances in digital platforms allow influencers to use live shows to showcase products, which has given rise to live-stream shopping. Moreover, new communication forms have emerged, such as the metaverse. The social interactions that occur in these immersive environments foster influencer-follower interactions. This research compares the impact of live-stream shopping on followers’ experiences and behaviors on two communication channels (live shows on Instagram and in the metaverse) and analyses the moderating role of content involvement in telepresence. Data were collected in a between-subjects quasi-field experiment. Two scenarios that differed in degree of telepresence were created, a live show on Instagram and a live show in the metaverse. The results showed that telepresence is an important part of the user experience and in the success of live shows. Telepresence was seen to have a major influence on experiential value, but not on instrumental value. Both values provided followers with satisfaction with the experience. This satisfaction generated stickiness intention and intention to recommend the influencers’ live shows. The effect of telepresence on experiential value was greater for followers less involved with the influencer’s content. This research is pioneering in comparing an established platform, Instagram, with the metaverse. Despite the greater experiential value provided by the metaverse, to increase its instrumental value metaverse spaces needs to be further developed.

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how presence (the social presence of live streaming platforms, of viewers, of live streamers and telepresence) affects consumer trust and flow state, thus inducing impulsive buying behaviors, personal sense of power as moderator.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, the conceptual model covers social presence, telepresence, consumer trust, flow state, personal sense of power and impulsive buying behavior. An online survey was conducted from 405 consumers with the experience of live streaming shopping in China; structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for data analysis.FindingsResults find that three dimensions of social presence (the social presence of live streaming platforms, of viewers, of live streamers) and telepresence have a positive and significant influence on consumer trust and flow state, thus triggering consumers’ impulsive buying behavior. Furthermore, consumers’ sense of power moderates the process from consumer trust, flow state to impulsive buying behavior.Practical implicationsThis study will help live streamers and e-retailers to have a further understand on how to stimulate consumers’ buying behavior. Furthermore, it also provides reference for the development of live streaming commerce in other countries.Originality/valueThis research examines the effect of social presence and telepresence on impulsive buying behavior in live streaming commerce, which is inadequately examined in extant literature.

(1) Background: in the last decade, various investigations into the field of robotics have created several opportunities for further innovation to be possible in student education. However, despite scientific evidence, there is still strong scepticism surrounding the use of robots in some social fields, such as personal care and education. (2) Methods: in this research, we present a new tool named the HANCON model, which was developed merging and extending the constructs of two solid and proven models—the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model used to examine the factors that may influence the decision to use a telepresence robot as an instrument in educational practice, and the Post Acceptance Model used to evaluate acceptability after the actual use of a telepresence robot. The new tool is implemented and used to study the acceptance of a double telepresence robot by 112 pre-service teachers in an educational setting. (3) Results: the analysis of the experimental results predicts and demonstrate a positive attitude towards the use of telepresence robot in a school setting and confirm the applicability of the model in an educational context. (4) Conclusions: the constructs of the HANCON model could predict and explain the acceptance of social telepresence robots in social contexts.

Around the world there has been growing interest in the use of technologies to connect students who are absent from school because of a health or medical condition to their teachers and peers in school. In this article findings are presented from a scoping review which sought to map the impacts of telepresence robots (TPR) for students who miss school because of illness. In Australia, TPRs are being piloted across the country in efforts to address the isolation of students with chronic illness. However, there is very little research internationally and no research in Australia that maps the potential and issues associated with students who are connected to their classrooms through TPRs. Therefore, research-based guidance regarding how best to direct the successful implementation of TPRs is required. Findings from the limited research available suggest that TPRs can enable positive experiences in education and can foster the social development of chronically-ill students; improvements to the design of TPRs are still required to maximise educational and social benefits; there is a need for appropriate professional learning for teachers in engaging with students through TPRs and for planning between all stakeholders; and, finally, issues of privacy and possible negative reactions from all parties involved need to be addressed.

Robotic avatar systems can enable immersive telepresence with locomotion, manipulation, and communication capabilities. We present such an avatar system, based on the key components of immersive 3D visualization and transparent force-feedback telemanipulation. Our avatar robot features an anthropomorphic upper body with dexterous hands. The remote human operator drives the arms and fingers through an exoskeleton-based operator station, which provides force feedback both at the wrist and for each finger. The robot torso is mounted on a holonomic base, providing omnidirectional locomotion on flat floors, controlled using a 3D rudder device. Finally, the robot features a 6D movable head with stereo cameras, which stream images to a VR display worn by the operator. Movement latency is hidden using spherical rendering. The head also carries a telepresence screen displaying an animated image of the operator’s face, enabling direct interaction with remote persons. Our system won the $10 M ANA Avatar XPRIZE competition, which challenged teams to develop intuitive and immersive avatar systems that could be operated by briefly trained judges. We analyze our successful participation in the semifinals and finals and provide insight into our operator training and lessons learned. In addition, we evaluate our system in a user study that demonstrates its intuitive and easy usability.

The number of robots that are in use worldwide is increasing, and they are starting to be used in new areas, where a use of robotics was impossible in the past, such as nursing care. This brings about new challenges that need to be addressed, one of them is the challenge of privacy preservation. Privacy in robotics is still a very new field that has not been studied deeply yet, even though some studies show that it is a crucial factor. In this article, we investigate how users feel about their privacy when interacting in a telepresence scenario with three different technical means: a laptop computer with a built-in camera, the mobile robot Temi and the humanoid robot Ameca. Behaviors from human interaction were implemented for the humanoid robot, which are not aimed directly at deactivating the sensors, but symbolize this deactivation. We conducted a user study with 21 participants. We did not find out any statistical significant difference between the elements, which shows that the robotic solutions are also popular and people feel comfortable around them. In addition, we also found out that the best way for a humanoid robot to indicate privacy to the participants is to perform actions where it closes the eyes and gives a sense of deactivation. Lastly, the results show that even though the acceptance of a humanoid robot is quite good, further work is needed to increase the control feeling in order to increase the trust of the user over it.