Andrew Davis, Senior Analyst and Managing Partner of Wainhouse Research, had an excellent interview with TelePresence Tech founder and CEO Duffie White in the latest edition of the Wainhouse Research Bulletin (.pdf).


One on One with TelePresence Technologies CEO Duffie White

In our continuing quest to understand the magic of telepresence, I traveled recently to Dallas, Texas, home of TelePresence Technologies and multimedia engineering guru Duffie White. Duffie has been dabbling in telepresence and visual effects since his days at the Rhode Island School of Design and has covered a lot of ground both in the USA and in the UK.

WRB: Telepresence is a relatively new field that is receiving lots of media attention. Is TelePresence Tech a new start-up to catch the wave of publicity?

DW: Actually TelePresence Tech was established in 2004 prior to the announcements in 2006 by HP and Cisco. We are pleased that they have brought their marketing power to bring greater public awareness for telepresence. Actually my work in the field of three-dimensional communications, which is really the precursor to telepresence, began in the 1970's. In the 1980's I was working with beamsplitters to expand beyond the fundamental principles of eye contact with life-size images of people. This technology was in the public domain, published in 1983 in "Media for Interactive Communication" by Rudy Bretz. My development work lead to the display and interaction with life-size people appearing within a three dimensional setting. Patents filed in 1995 and 1999 introduced 3D TelePresence. Applications of my inventions were featured on the Today Show in 2000 and articles appeared in TIME, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, The Times, and dozens of international publications. So, none of this is really new; and I'm not catching any waves.

WRB: How does the TelePresence Tech format of 3D TelePresence compare to the telepresence rooms by the large players in this field?

DW: The three-screen format of other vendors displays participants at life-size with cameras positioned to achieve near eye contact. However, the images appear on flat screens. The format used by TelePresence Tech displays the life-size participants within a three dimensional setting with measurable physical depth between the participants and the visible backdrop. This effect combined with eye contact accurately aligned at eye level achieves a superior communications experience.

WRB: Is your 3D TelePresence different from the DVE Telepresence?

DW: Yes. The DVE products are based on the reflection of an image like a teleprompter commonly used in television production. A two way mirror or beamsplitter is used to reflect an image displayed on a screen while a camera views through the semi-reflective mirror. These beam splitters typically reflect 30% of the light and allow close to 70% to pass through. In this arrangement the customer views the reflected image, which is only 30% of the original brightness. The patented TelePresence Tech configuration allows the customer to view the displayed image directly at a full 70% of the original brightness for an image that is over twice as bright and free of aberrations caused by a mirror image.

WRB: Are you competing with the other video conference and telepresence companies?


DW: We are not competing with them, in fact we are supporting them. We do not manufacture codecs and we recommend our customers to purchase codecs from Polycom, Tandberg, LifeSize, Sony, Aethra and Haivision. Also, we do not produce or manage three screen telepresence rooms and can support Cisco, HP, Polycom, Teliris and Telanetix with 3D TelePresence lecterns, kiosks and workstations to expand their telepresence networks and services.

WRB: Why would a customer use a 3D TelePresence solution rather than any of the standard videoconferencing or other telepresence formats?

DW: In many applications the existing videoconferencing and telepresence formats meet the needs of customers. However, there are some applications where real eye contact and the greater sense of presence of physically being in the room are essential. In particular, several banks have found that the display of a remote banker on a flat screen without true eye contact has proven to be unacceptable to their customers. However, they have had excellent acceptance of personal banking using 3D TelePresence. Also, remote medical consultation and tele-psychiatry has been received positively due to the natural sense of presence. In addition telepresence reception desks and customer support desks are effective in many locations. We have installed TelePresence Tech systems in operation in 15 countries around the world and the adoption of 3D TelePresence as the optimal telepresence format is increasing rapidly.

Editors Note: We believe the role of eye contact in providing a "pleasing" videoconferencing experience has been largely overlooked. When sitting close to the video display, as would be the case in a banking kiosk or a tele-psychiatry station (and unlike the typical conference room setup) eye contact plays an even more important role in establishing trust and creating a "natural" communications experience.

via [Wainhouse Research Bulletin (.pdf)]