Moving away from military and medical uses, Jonar Nader explains how telepresence can be used in art. He also explains the difference between virtual reality and telepresence.
Below is a transcript of the audio file.
Jonar Nader: Now there is another thing called simultaneous art. Remember last time when we spoke about robots? We said that robots could be virtually like a sumo wrestler, and they now have sumo wrestler robots who are not remotely controlled, but they have their own intelligence to fight their own game, just as a chess machine fights its own game, well this one is done with brute force. Well that is one area. What if you had a whole group of people on the internet, each assuming the role of a robot for say one or two minutes a piece and you, through telepresence can control the sumo wrestlerrobot. Well there is now art on the internet where you can have the brush in the robots hand and then everyone can watch what you do.
Host: So, for example, you could compete in a tennis tournament, even tho you haven’t got tennis skills or physical fitness, but you might have the mental skills to play this, so you could be up against someone else in a teleprescence format?
Jonar Nader: Yes that is true. Now what you are suggesting there with tennis is possible with golf, etc, assuming tho that the machine at the other end can play the tennis for you. In teleprescence, unlike virtual reality, there is no existance of the environment in which you are playing it is all inside the computer program. That is virtual reality. It is created by the computer and the computer speed.
Host: It is false, isn’t it?
Jonar Nader: Correct. But teleprescence is very real, so you just have to have a robot at the other end who can actually so what you want it to do, whether it is fix a space craft or play tennis for you. And you will find that entertainment is one of the biggest areas where this technology can be. You can now be somewhere, go somewhere, become familiar.
Host: Front row seats at the Tyson Hollyfield fight for five minutes.
Jonar Nader: Yes. Notice this memo here from the 1991 Onterio teleprescence project, where they spend $7 000 000 for a period of two or three years, where they were trying to see how they could bring telepresence into the home. The memo read “in the next teleprescence meeting which will be held on Friday 26th February at noon, Toronto people can attend in person at the University of Toronto. The emphasis being that those people who are being so engrossed in teleprescence find it necessisary to say that a meeting which you must attend in person. So in person now becomes, IP if you wish, becomes just as important as TP, because you have to differentiate whether you are here or there or not at all.
Host: Whether you are there or whether you are not, and you might have a better view if you are not there, I think. It is interesting, as you say it may become a part of our lives very soon.
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