Beyond Video-Conferencing: Telepresence Technologies for Extending Expertise Reach and Specialised Skill Sharing

Despite resurgent interest in remote work technologies, many forms of specialised work remain inaccessible. Participation in remote activities often requires more than video-conferencing. Telepresence technologies, using robotics and mixed reality, can fill that gap by providing more affordances (movement and embodied expressions). However, we still need to know what kinds of affordances are needed and how they should be implemented. This workshop focuses on telepresence technologies for mediating specialised tasks and extending expertise reach, such as teaching technical skills or providing healthcare assistance. We will invite experts from specific fields (e.g., education, healthcare, industry) to guide participants through use cases, and use interactive exercises to identify what kinds of actions and interaction modalities are important in different scenarios. The aim of the workshop is to explore this hands-on, needs-driven design approach, initiate critical discussions into the design of telepresence technologies and foster future work driven by a focus on understanding practical user needs.