IMPLICATIONS OF TELEPRESENCE: INVESTIGATING OCCUPANCY & CONSCIOUSNESS IN A HUMAN-LESS ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

Modern technology has progressively become an essential part of our daily lives. Thus it is unsurprising that there are growing concerns associated with the invisibility of technology. This dissertation seeks to challenge those apprehensive notions and examine them in terms of architectural design and space. The question is, does the problem of invisibility apply to architectural design?

Telepresence is a product of technological advancement. It has evolved over the years and is evident in its increasing magnitude of realism in entity representation. The realistic appearance of telepresent individuals may be a way for virtual components of technology to assimilate in the real environment. Telepresence also results in a non-traditional form of occupancy, where real and virtual beings coexist within real spaces.

The research will include an evaluation of the current state of telepresence in architecture, highlighting the potential challenges it may bring to architecture. Current applications of telepresence has already made significant impacts in different fields and settings as companies become increasingly interested in adopting telepresence systems to enhance their businesses and services. In this dissertation, the current state of telepresence will be presented in case studies, each representing different modes/stages of telepresence and occupancy. Occupancy is a significant component of architectural design, thus the presence of virtual beings may pose greater challenges to architectural design, especially when telepresence becomes a mainstream form of remote interaction. The adoption of telepresence systems will create new spatial requirements as we may need to design spaces that accommodate virtual representations of real occupants.