Situation awareness and attention allocation measures for quantifying telepresence experiences in teleoperation

Abstract This study assessed the utility of measures of situation awareness (SA) and attention allocation for quantifying telepresence, the sense of being present at a remote site, in a teleoperation task scenario. Attention and SA have been identified as cognitive constructs potentially underlying telepresence. The motivation for this research was to establish an objective measure of telepresence and investigate the relationship between telepresence and teleoperation performance. Twenty‐four research participants performed a virtual ordnance disposal task at varying levels of difficulty (LODs). The task involved locating, identifying, and disposing of virtual land mines in an outdoor environment using a simulated remote‐control rover with a robotic arm. Performance, SA, and attention allocation were recorded along with subjective assessments of telepresence. Results demonstrated LOD effects on performance and telepresence. Regression analysis revealed LOD and attention to explain significant portions of the variance in telepresence. Results of the study provide further evidence that telepresence may share a relationship with performance, and that cognitive constructs, such as attention and SA, may serve as alternative, objective measures of telepresence. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 14: 51–67, 2004.