Sea ice near the McMurdo Science Station in Antarctica.

• Main Authors: Butler P. Hine Iii, Carol Stoker, Michael Sims, Daryl Rasmussen, Terrence W. Fong, Jay Steele, Don Barch
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctica; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.68.9524; http://www.ri.cmu.edu/pub_files/pub1/iii_b_p_hine_1994_1/iii_b_p_hine_1994_1.pdf

The operation of remote science exploration vehicles benefits greatly from the application of advanced telepresence and virtual reality operator interfaces. Telepresence, or the projection of the human sensory apparatus into a remote location, can provide scientists with a much greater intuitive understanding of the environment in which they are working than simple camera-display systems. Likewise virtual reality, or the use of highly interactive three-dimensional computer graphics, can both enhance an operator’s situational awareness of an environment and also compensate (to some degree) for low bandwidth and/or long time delays in the communications channel between the operator and the vehicle. These advanced operator interfaces are important for terrestrial science and exploration applications, and are critical for missions involving the exploration of other planetary surfaces, such as on Mars. The undersea environment provides an excellent terrestrial analog to science exploration and operations on another planetary surface.