Transmitting human presence through portable teleoperated androids: A minimal design approach

Abstract

In this article, results from the JST/CREST project “Studies on cellphone-type teleoperated androids transmitting human presence” are described. The goal of this project is to develop new robotic communication devices that can provide a strong feeling of human presence, called “sonzaikan”, by distance and to clarify the principles of human nature behind this. We took a synthetic approach, exploring three bidirectional processes: system development, field studies, and evaluation. We first define sonzaikan, which forms the core concept of this study, and then in the following sections describe various implementations of sonzaikan media prototypes and supporting technologies, evaluations of sonzaikan media, and field studies using prototypes we developed. We discuss the results in detail and then conclude this article with a brief summary of our essential findings and a mention of future work.