Can You See Me Now? How Field Of View Affects Collaboration In Robotic Telepresence

Robotic telepresence systems-videoconferencing systems that allow a remote user to drive around in another location-are an emerging technology for supporting geographically-distributed teams. Thus far, many of these systems rely on affordances designed for stationary systems, such as a single, narrow-view camera to provide vision for the remote user. Teleoperation has offered some solutions to this via an augmented field-of-view, but how these solutions support task outcomes in collaborative mobile telepresence tasks has yet to be understood. To investigate this, we conducted a three condition (field-of-view: narrow (45 degrees) vs. wide-angle (180 degrees) vs. panoramic (360 degrees)) between-participants controlled laboratory experiment. We asked participants (N = 24) to collaborate with a confederate via a robotic telepresence system while using one of these views in a redecoration task. Our results showed that wider views supported task efficiency and fewer collisions, but were perceived as more difficult to use.