Video Surrogates

A key concept growing out of the Telepresence project is the notion of a "video surrogate." A video surrogate occupies the same physical place that would otherwise be occupied by the remote participant if that participant was physically present. The benefit is that relationships between physical location and social functions and social distance are maintained. For example, in a conference room, there would be a video surrogate at the front which would be used or remote presentations, but there would also be a surrogate at the back, around the table, to be "occupied" by a remote auditor/attendee. The next examples are specific instantiations growing out of this notion of video surrogate.