Consistency in physical and on-screen action improves perceptions of telepresence robots

Does augmented movement capability improve people´s experiences with telepresent meeting participants? We performed two web-based studies featuring videos of a telepresence robot. In the first study (N=164), participants observed clips of typical conversational gestures performed a) on a stationary screen only, b) with an actuated screen moving in physical space, or c) both on-screen and in-space. In the second study (N=103), participants viewed scenario videos depicting two people interacting with a remote collaborator through a telepresence robot, whose distant actions were a) visible on the screen only, or b) accompanied by local physical motion. These studies suggest that synchronized on-screen and in-space gestures significantly improved viewers´ interpretation of the action compared to on-screen or in-space gestures alone, and that in-space gestures positively influenced perceptions of both local and remote participants.