Telexistence — from 1980 to 2012

Telexistence technology enables a highly realistic sensation of existence in a remote place without any actual travel. The concept was originally proposed by the first author in 1980, and its feasibility has been demonstrated through the construction of alter-ego robot systems such as TELESAR & TELESAR V, which were developed under the national large scale project on “Robots in Hazardous Environments” and the “CREST Haptic Telexistence Project.” A mutual telexistence system, such as TELESAR II & IV, capable of generating the sensation of being in a remote place in local space using a combination of an alter-ego robot and retro-reflective projection technology (RPT), has been developed, and the feasibility of mutual telexistence has been demonstrated. Thirty-two years of telexistence development are historically reviewed in this jubilee video.