Telexistence: Enabling Humans to Be Virtually Ubiquitous

Telecommunication and remote-controlled operations are becoming increasingly common in our daily lives. While performing these operations, ideally users would feel as if they were actually present at the remote sites. However, the present commercially available telecommunication and telepresence systems do not provide the sensation of self-presence or self-existence, and hence, users do not get the feeling of being spatially present or that they are directly performing spatial tasks, rather than simply controlling them remotely. This article describes the TELESAR V telexistence master-slave system that enables a human user to feel present in a remote environment. TELESAR V can transmit not only visual and auditory sensations, but also haptic sensations, which are conveyed using the principle of haptic primary colors.