“Tele” Me More: Using Telepresence Charades to Connect Strangers and Exhibits in Different Museums

Abstract

The museum is changing from a place of passive consumption to a place of interactive experiences, opening up new ways of engaging with exhibits and others. As a promising direction, this paper explores the potential of telepresence stations in the museum context to enhance social connectedness among visitors over distance. Emphasizing the significance of social exchange, our research focuses on studying telepresence to foster interactions between strangers, share knowledge, and promote social connectedness. To do so, we first observe exhibitions and then interview individual visitors of a technical museum about their experiences and needs. Based on the results, we design appropriate voiceless and touchless communication channels and test them in a study. The findings of our in-situ user study with 24 visitors unfamiliar with each other in the museum provide insights into behaviors and perceptions, contributing valuable knowledge on seamlessly integrating telepresence technology in exhibitions, with a focus on enhancing learning, social connections, and the museum experience in general.