Trans-scale Playground: An Immersive Visual Telexistence
System for Human Adaptation
Satoshi Hashizume*
University of Tsukuba
Ibaraki, Japan
pota1401@hotmail.co.jp

Akira Ishii*
University of Tsukuba
Ibaraki, Japanishii@iplab.cs.tsukuba.ac.jp

Kenta Suzuki
University of Tsukuba
Ibaraki, Japan
Ikuzus.atnek.0626@gmail.com

Kazuki Takazawa
Yoichi Ochiai
University of Tsukuba
University of Tsukuba
Ibaraki, Japan
Ibaraki, Japankazuki.takazawa@pixiedusttech.comwizard@slis.tsukuba.ac.jp

Small-scale

Trans-scale
Large-scale

Figure 1. Left: Concept of a small-scale to large-scale trans-scale telexistence system. Middle: Our small-scale telexistence system comprising acontrollable robot and omnidirectional cameras. Right: Our large-scale telexistence system comprising a drone.

ABSTRACT

Author Keywords

In this paper, we present a novel telexistence system anddesign methods for telexistence studies to explore spatialscale deconstruction. There have been studies on the experience of dwarf-sized or giant-sized telepresence have been
conducted over a period of many years. In this study, wediscuss the scale of movements, image transformation, technical components of telepresence robots, and user experiences of telexistence-based spatial transformations. We implemented two types of telepresence robots with an omnidirectional stereo camera setup for a spatial trans-scale experience, wheeled robots, and quadcopters. These telepresence
robots provide users with a trans-scale experience for a distance ranging from 15 cm to 30 m. We conducted user studies
for different camera positions on robots and for different image transformation method.

Telepresence; telexistence; omnidirectional image;immersive experience; out-of-body.

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INTRODUCTION

Recently, numerous studies on telexistence systems using
head-mounted displays (HMDs) have been explored. Thesesystems utilize the sense of being highly immersed that isinduced by HMDs to produce a sensation of being present
in a space and time that the user could not otherwise experience. These telexistence systems are also used for remotecommunication and remote control. By designing the layoutof sensors and the system, it provides users the experience offeeling as if they have taken on the identity of another persons
or objects. JackIn Head [1] is an immersive telexistence system that enables a user to experience a 360◦ spherical imageof the surroundings from the perspective of the target person,
allowing the user to experience those surroundings from theperspective of that person and enabling the user to understandhow the target person sees (e.g., a professional athlete, or amusician).

© 2018 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

Furthermore, telexistence systems not only enable experiences of real people but also imaginary existences and objects. In particular, these systems have been used in attempt
to expand human physicality to scales different from that of
the self and to apply this to the fields of entertainment andACM ISBN 978-1-4503-5949-8/18/10.

* Hashizume and Ishii contributed equally to the work.

UIST ’18 Adjunct October 14–17, 2018, Berlin, Germany

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3266037.3266103

(a)Controller

Computer
Key input

HMD

(b)

(d)

(c)

Headorientations
Omnidirectional
stereo vision

Omnidirectional
vision

Xbee

Theta S
ZigBee Behavior
commands
Xbee
Movedby controller

iRobot Create 2

Figure 2. System overview. (a) System components. (b) User-side components. (c) Target-side components.

design. CHILDHOOD [2] is another immersive telexistencesystem that enables a user to experience the world from achild’s perspective. By experiencing and understanding thechild’s viewpoint, which is lower than an adult’s viewpoint,
the information obtained can be used for universal design andapplied to products or architectures. The concept of our system, Trans-scale Playground is shown in Figure 1. Telexistence greatly expands the user’s physicality and can be expected to significantly contribute to various fields. However,existing research does not explore in depth the contributionof design elements of telexistence (e.g., viewpoints and distance between pupils) on the user’s experience across different scales. In this research, we developed a trans-scale existence system that allows users to move on different scales.
This system provides an extracorporeal experience of a user’s
surroundings due to the presence of viewpoints on different
scales. We focus on extracting and evaluating the design factors of the telexistence system that differ from those of theuser’s scale. Evaluating the sensation that the user undergoes
during a change in the scale contributes to the research in
the field of telexistence. In particular, it facilitates developments to enhance the sense of immersion into objects otherthan imaginary objects and human beings, and to further expand human physicality.
IMPLEMENTATION

An overview of our system is shown in Figure 2. Our telexistence system comprises a remote controlled robot1 that moves
around freely, a controller to manipulate the robot, two omnidirectional cameras2 to provide a 360◦ image source, an
HMD to display spherical images, wireless modules to control the robot, and a laptop.
The robot wirelessly connected to the laptop, receives theuser’s inputs upon controller operation, and moves depending
1 https://www.irobot.com/About-iRobot/STEM/Create-2.aspx, (lastaccessed August 15, 2018).
2 https://theta360.com/en/about/theta/s.html, (last accessed August15, 2018).

on the user’s inputs. In this research, we adopted two types ofrobots. A drone flying in the air is used for experiences larger
than the user’s scale, and a cleaning robot moving on land
is used for experiences smaller than the user’s scale. Bothrobots move based on hot the user operates the controller.
We adopted an omnidirectional camera as the camera on thetarget’s side to capture image from the robot’s viewpoint.
Changing the viewpoint in response to the user’s head movement is necessary for a building virtual body image. This system can provide free-viewpoint accordance with the movement of the user’s head without any special mechanism because the omnidirectional cameras can capture 360◦ images
around the slave.
This method enable faster and smoother changes in viewpointcompared to alternative methods that use a wide-angle camera attached to the front of the robot. Using omnidirectional
cameras together with image processing can facilitate a fasterchange in viewpoint compare with systems using a forwardfacing wide-angle camera on the robot that changes the viewpoint via robot movement. Therefore, in this study, two omnidirectional cameras were used to achieve binocular vision.
The omnidirectional cameras are attached to the top of therobot, which is connected to the laptop via a wireless HMD
transmitter. The computer converts 360◦ images into spherical images on Unity and sends the images to the an HMD
via HDMI cable. The HMD displays the spherical images
corresponding to the movement of the user’s head.
DEMONSTRATION

We demonstrated a prototype of our system at an exhibition at
the Umekita Festival 2016, held at the Grand Front Osaka inOsaka, Japan, from March 30, 2016, to April 2, 2016. Morethan one hundred visitors experienced our system (a dwarfversion). We obtained various feedback: “I found this installation enjoyable” “This is a unique experience that has neverbeen accomplished before” and “I felt as I was literally adwarf, and the feeling of oppression due to the taller people
generated by the viewpoint of this system was scary.”

REFERENCES

1. Shunichi Kasahara and Jun Rekimoto. 2015. JackIn
Head: Immersive Visual Telepresence System withOmnidirectional Wearable Camera for RemoteCollaboration. In Proceedings of the 21st ACM
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2821592.2821608

2. Jun Nishida, Hikaru Takatori, Kosuke Sato, and Kenji
Suzuki. 2015. CHILDHOOD: Wearable Suit for
Augmented Child Experience. In ACM SIGGRAPH
2015 Emerging Technologies (SIGGRAPH ’15). ACM,New York, NY, USA, Article 7, 1 pages. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2782782.2792501