Skip to main content

Third Eye: Exploring the Affordances of Third-Person View in Telepresence Robots

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Book cover Social Robotics (ICSR 2019)

Abstract

Social interaction through telepresence robots can be challenging for a robot operator due to lack of spatial awareness caused by limited idiothetic cues and narrow field of view of a robot’s camera. We explore the use of a third-person perspective, popular in video game design, to provide missing spatial cues to remote robot operators. We present the design and implementation of Third Eye, a system that enables controlling telepresence robots through a third-person view. Third Eye comprises a controllable third-person camera with a wide field of view, attached to a robot, and bimanual controls for remote operation. Observations from a user study show that Third Eye enabled the robot operators to have a better awareness of the robot ‘bodies’ they controlled. This, in turn, afforded new behavior for operators. In addition, the camera design supported ecologically valid interaction for social telepresence. Quantitative data shows that Third Eye has comparable navigation efficiency to existing systems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs - Population Division: International Migration Report 2017 (ST/ESA/SER.A/403) (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Kristoffersson, A., Coradeschi, S., Loutfi, A.: A review of mobile robotic telepresence. Adv. Hum.-Comput. Interact. 2013, 1–17 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/902316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Chen, J.Y.C., Haas, E.C., Barnes, M.J.: Human performance issues and user interface design for teleoperated robots. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Part C (Appl. Rev.) 37, 1231–1245 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1109/TSMCC.2007.905819

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Coltin, B., Biswas, J., Pomerleau, D., Veloso, M.: Effective semi-autonomous telepresence. In: Röfer, T., Mayer, N.M., Savage, J., Saranlı, U. (eds.) RoboCup 2011. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 7416, pp. 365–376. Springer, Heidelberg (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32060-6_31

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. Keyes, B., Casey, R., Yanco, H.A., Maxwell, B.A., Georgiev, Y.: Camera placement and multi-camera fusion for remote robot operation. In: IEEE International Workshop Safety, Security Rescue Robotics, pp. 22–24 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Takayama, L., Marder-Eppstein, E., Harris, H., Beer, J.M.: Assisted driving of a mobile remote presence system: system design and controlled user evaluation. In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. pp. 1883–1889. IEEE (2011). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICRA.2011.5979637

  7. Adams, E.: Fundamentals of Game Design (2013). https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004

  8. Hughes, S., Manojlovich, J., Lewis, M., Gennari, J.: Camera control and decoupled motion for teleoperation. In: IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, pp. 1339–1344. IEEE (2003). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSMC.2003.1244597

  9. Lima, P., et al.: RoboCup 2004 competitions and symposium: a small kick for robots, a giant score for science. AI Mag. 26, 36–61 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1609/AIMAG.V26I2.1812

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Saakes, D., Choudhary, V., Sakamoto, D., Inami, M., Lgarashi, T., Igarashi, T.: A teleoperating interface for ground vehicles using autonomous flying cameras. In: International Conference on Artificial Reality Telexistence (2013). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICAT.2013.6728900

  11. Seo, S.H., Rea, D.J., Wiebe, J., Young, J.E.: Monocle: interactive detail-in-context using two pan-and-tilt cameras to improve teleoperation effectiveness. In: RO-MAN 2017 - 26th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (2017). https://doi.org/10.1109/ROMAN.2017.8172419

  12. Johnson, S., Rae, I., Mutlu, B., Takayama, L.: Can you see me now?: how field of view affects collaboration in robotic telepresence. In: Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI 2015, pp. 2397–2406. ACM Press, New York (2015). https://doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702526

  13. Kress, G., Almaula, H.: Sensorimotor requirements for teleoperation. FMC Corporation, San Diego, CA, Report R-6279 (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Scribner, D.R., Gombash, J.W.: The Effect of Stereoscopic and Wide Field of View Conditions on Teleoperator Performance (1998). http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA341218

  15. Giudice, N.A., Tietz, J.D.: Learning with virtual verbal displays: effects of interface fidelity on cognitive map development. In: Freksa, C., Newcombe, N.S., Gärdenfors, P., Wölfl, S. (eds.) Spatial Cognition 2008. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 5248, pp. 121–137. Springer, Heidelberg (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87601-4_11

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Chesher, C.: Neither gaze nor glance, but glaze: relating to console game screens. SCAN J. Media Arts Cult. 1, 98–117 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Black, D.: Why can i see my avatar? embodied visual engagement in the third-person video game. Games Cult. 12, 179–199 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412015589175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Luff, P., Heath, C., Kuzuoka, H., Hindmarsh, J., Yamazaki, K., Oyama, S.: Fractured ecologies: creating environments for collaboration. Hum. Comput. Interact. 18, 51–84 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327051HCI1812_3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Morita, T., Mase, K., Hirano, Y., Kajita, S.: Reciprocal attentive communication in remote meeting with a humanoid robot. In: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Multimodal Interfaces - ICMI 2007, pp. 228–235. ACM Press, New York (2007). https://doi.org/10.1145/1322192.1322232

  20. Guiard, Y.: Asymmetric division of labor in human skilled bimanual action: the kinematic chain as a model. J. Mot. Behav. 19, 486–517 (1987)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Kiselev, A., Kristoffersson, A., Loutfi, A.: The effect of field of view on social interaction in mobile robotic telepresence systems. In: ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, pp. 214–215. ACM (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Arthur, K.W.: Effects of field of view on performance with head-mounted displays (2000). http://wwwx.cs.unc.edu/Research/eve/dissertations/2000-Arthur.pdf

  23. Newman, J.: The myth of the ergodic videogame. Game Stud. 2, 1–17 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Kirsh, D., Maglio, P.: On distinguishing epistemic from pragmatic action. Cogn. Sci. 18, 513–549 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1804_1

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Jason Nolan for his insights and for lending his equipment for research. We also thank Tamara Mahbubani, Syeda Zahra, Nabeel Ahmed, Farisa Hossain, Victor Alexandru, and Ronak Maru for their collaboration. This research was supported through grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs Program, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, and the Ontario Ministry for Research and Innovation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aneesh P. Tarun .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Tarun, A.P., Baig, N.M., Chang, J.(K., Tanvir, R., Shihipar, S., Mazalek, A. (2019). Third Eye: Exploring the Affordances of Third-Person View in Telepresence Robots. In: Salichs, M., et al. Social Robotics. ICSR 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11876. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35888-4_66

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35888-4_66

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-35887-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-35888-4

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics