They allow us to exchange text, images, sound, and video with anyone whose interests we share, professionally or socially, regardless of geographic location. But for many applications something important is still missing. Existing tools fail to provide us with an adequate interface into the real world in which we live, work, and play.
PRoPs strive to provide the sensation of tele-embodiment in a remote real space.
PRoPs also enable their users to perform a wide gamut of human activities in the remote space, such as wander around, explore, converse with people, and hang out. Eric Paulos is a PhD graduate student in Computer Science at UC Berkeley. His research interests revolve around mediated human communication and interaction, particularly internet based personal telepresence. His focus is on the physical, aural, visual, and gestural interactions between humans and machines and various permutations of those interactions. He has developed numerous internet based tele-operated robots since 1995 when he implemented Mechanical Gaze.