What Softwarre and Hardware You Need For a Telepresence?

[weblord]

What special software and hardware you need for one to conduct a telepresence? Is there a need for a expensive setup? What's the simplest, minimal setup does it need?

[Adam]

I found this: http://www.instructables.com/id/OLPC-Telepresence/

It's a guide on how to get it started.

[Johnny]

I found this: http://www.instructables.com/id/OLPC-Telepresence/

It's a guide on how to get it started.

I didn't find any price tags there. I believe weblord was looking for a software/hardware bundle he can purchase.

[zepheria]

I found this: http://www.instructables.com/id/OLPC-Telepresence/

It's a guide on how to get it started.

It looks like a good $400 if you are willing to spend that much.:D

[javayahtzee]

That doesn't sound too bad! is it really that little?
That's less than an old desktop computer costs on ebay!

[Tphilakone]

It looks like a good $400 if you are willing to spend that much.:D
i think its very expensive to pay for that

[JjTay]

$400 isn't that bad of a price. It's a worthwhile spend in my opinion :)

[zuly]

I doubt that it is 400$
HD Tv or monitor what ever is used for this costs that much, not to mention all the other equipment and very fast connection and a big bandwith if it wold go through the net.

[LameCat]

400$ for this?? I don't believe it :/ i second Zuly.. it would cost alot most.. especially that internet connection around 600-800'ish atleast..

[cvsmith122]

400$ for this?? I don't believe it :/ i second Zuly.. it would cost alot most.. especially that internet connection around 600-800'ish atleast..



What LameCat says is correct. But I will get to this in a few minuets


400 dollars is going to be just about a 200 dollar web cam and some 200 dollar software. The quality of the video is not going to be near HD and your Display will most likely not be HD.


This is more of a Video Conference not a Telepresence call. By definition Telepresence is the following

" Telepresence refers to a set of technologies witch allow a person to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance that they were presence, or to have an effect, at a location other than their true location."

Reference cited http://www.reference.com/search?r=13&q=Telepresence


Being that this is the definition of Telepresence the only way to achieve True Telepresence is the use of HD Cameras and HD displays. Now while this is good this is still not 100% Telepresence. Then you need to capture that person at "Life size" that is they wont appear to be larger or smaller on the TV then if they were in the same room as you.What Telepresence Tech does is we bring the person into the room with you with the same familiar soundings. When we take out the back drop your not going to focus on that book about how to build a new computer on the book shelf behind the person. You will be able to focus on the person talking. Then we add the biggest part of human interaction. Eye Contact!

With this being said the entry level Eye Contact Telepresence System can be bought for below 6,000 dollars from Telepresence Tech, for a personal Desktop system. If you want to talk about bringing some one into a room with you say at a conference table then our Conference system would be what you would want to look at. What it really comes down to is what kind of room your going to use it in and how many people need to be presented or captured on the display.


Back to the bandwidth that is required. Because your sending Video packets over the internet and you are sending large amounts of them you are going to need a network that can deliver you a QOS ( Quality of service ). Most networks that can give you a 99.9% qos are going to cost around the range that LameCat talked about. While Most telepresence systems need 2 or 3 t1 lines. We have found a way to make it happen over a single t1 line. So depending where you are in the country around the range of 400 to 800 dollars for the connection.

Some companys that you are able to get this type of QOS from are:

http://www.Masergy.com
http://www.Glowpoint.com
http://www.XO.com
http://www.Qwest.com/
http://www.speakeasy.com ( T1 only)

So since Telepresence as a whole is a new industry I personally thing it will be quite a while before we see any kind of True Telepresence systems around a 400 dollar price point, but with the way technology moves I could be wrong. I know that i would love to have a True Telepresence System in my house so that really high gas bill would go down !

[cyclist]

So since Telepresence as a whole is a new industry I personally thing it will be quite a while before we see any kind of True Telepresence systems around a 400 dollar price point, but with the way technology moves I could be wrong. I know that i would love to have a True Telepresence System in my house so that really high gas bill would go down !



If I have my way, it will never be that cheap. The closest we could get (and it's not that close and quality is suspect) is a projector, web camera, computer and Skype.

[iznan]

back to the topic. Can telepresence be acheived in software domain without hardware encoders/decoders? (i am talking the encoding and decoding here, not the visual display aspect). If can, anybody knows where I can find it? Thanks.

[Lumpy]

back to the topic. Can telepresence be acheived in software domain without hardware encoders/decoders? (i am talking the encoding and decoding here, not the visual display aspect). If can, anybody knows where I can find it? Thanks.
I do not believe it's possible without the codec hardware.

There are a bunch of software products like Webex, Linc, etc. that you can have a video conference with, but for a "Telepresence Experience" - the level of hardware just went up....

L2

[iznan]

I do not believe it's possible without the codec hardware.

There are a bunch of software products like Webex, Linc, etc. that you can have a video conference with, but for a "Telepresence Experience" - the level of hardware just went up....

L2

Thanks Lumpy. I was wondering. Reason for asking is I am looking for potential research project for my MSc in CompSci. And TP is one of the areas that peaked my interest. Had read some journal papers on ACM and IEEE library related to TP tech, specifically looking for ways to enable software based TP system, even if not entirely s/w - maybe a hybrid. h/w encoder, but s/w decoder kind of mix. Came across some interesting research projects related to TP at Integrated Media Systems Center (IMSC, imsc.usc.edu), one of them is the HYDRA project.