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Our House: Living Long Distance with a Telepresence Robot

Published: 01 November 2018 Publication History

Abstract

Many couples live in long distance arrangements due to a variety of reasons from work opportunities to family obligations. However, current computer-mediated communication tools are not designed to support the entire range of communication behaviors that couples engage in during daily life. Our research explored how telepresence robots might fit into the array of tools that long distance couples use to communicate, given the factors of mobility and physicality that could support acts of interactivity and autonomy between partners. We found that telepresence robot communication facilitated interactions in five areas: participation in mundane everyday routines, feelings of sharing a home, connection with one's partner's family and friends, increased helpfulness, and the enjoyment of quiet companionship. However, telepresence robots also presented challenges related to privacy and asymmetry, as well as continued deficiencies in the level of interactivity. In response to these findings, we discuss the design implications for telepresence robots.

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    cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
    Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction  Volume 2, Issue CSCW
    November 2018
    4104 pages
    EISSN:2573-0142
    DOI:10.1145/3290265
    Issue’s Table of Contents
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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    Publication History

    Published: 01 November 2018
    Published in PACMHCI Volume 2, Issue CSCW

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    1. long distance relationships
    2. telepresence robots

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