A study on the effectiveness of using telepresence and multiple cameras in remote physical therapy

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract
The present research investigates the effectiveness of using a telepresence system compared to a video conferencing system and the effectiveness of using two cameras compared to one camera for remote physical therapy. The telepresence system that was used is Telegie, which allows users to see a place in 3D through a VR headset. This telepresence system provides additional spatial information to its users. Similarly, using two cameras with a video conferencing system allows users to see a place from multiple angles and provides additional spatial information. These two approaches of providing users additional spatial information were examined and compared in the context of remote physical therapy. In this dissertation, a telepresence system will be introduced and the design criteria (real-time, multi-user, simplicity, behavioral realism, spatial realism, openness) that led to the current implementation of the telepresence system will be explained citing existing telepresence systems. These will be followed by the implementation details of the telepresence system, the design of the study, and finally, the analysis of the study. In the study, the participants included 11 physical therapists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and 76 patients from Stanford University. The study was 2x2 factorial design: video conferencing compared to telepresence, and 1-camera compared to 2-camera. Each patient was assigned to one of the four conditions (e.g., 2-camera video conferencing). Results showed that none of the eight hypotheses predicting the main effects on many outcome measures for both telepresence and using two cameras were supported via t-tests. In additional analyses, with the individual differences both the therapist and patient controlled in a linear mixed model as random effects, using two cameras showed a marginally significant positive effect on physical therapy evaluations from the therapists. The interaction between using telepresence and using two cameras showed a marginally significant negative effect on the evaluations from therapists. Other findings include the positive effects of using telepresence when the video clarity level is controlled and observation of the patients' spatial ability as a strong predictor of therapists' evaluations on sessions. The findings of this dissertation indicate that video fidelity of remote communication systems matters and therefore suggest telepresence systems should provide sufficient video clarity matching the purposes of remote communication, which was remote physical therapy in this case. At the same time the findings, especially with the analyses with video clarity level controlled, suggest that with improved video clarity, telepresence may provide a better user experience compared to video conferencing. While it was not hypothesized as a primary mechanism, the spatial ability of patients was found as a strong predictor of physical therapy session evaluation, which should be further examined in the future.

Description

Type of resource text
Form electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource
Extent 1 online resource.
Place California
Place [Stanford, California]
Publisher [Stanford University]
Copyright date 2022; ©2022
Publication date 2022; 2022
Issuance monographic
Language English

Creators/Contributors

Author Jun, Hanseul
Degree supervisor Bailenson, Jeremy
Thesis advisor Bailenson, Jeremy
Thesis advisor Harari, Gabriella
Thesis advisor Reeves, Byron, 1949-
Thesis advisor Wetzstein, Gordon
Degree committee member Harari, Gabriella
Degree committee member Reeves, Byron, 1949-
Degree committee member Wetzstein, Gordon
Associated with Stanford University, Department of Communication

Subjects

Genre Theses
Genre Text

Bibliographic information

Statement of responsibility Hanseul Jun.
Note Submitted to the Department of Communication.
Thesis Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2022.
Location https://purl.stanford.edu/cv989ps5015

Access conditions

Copyright
© 2022 by Hanseul Jun
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

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