The "Tele-Actor" is a skilled human equipped with cameras, microphones, and wireless communications systems who moves through and interacts with a remote environment. First person video and audio is transmitted to a base station and then broadcast over the Internet to hundreds or thousands of "Tele-Directors" online. Tele-Directors not only view, but interact with each other and with the remote environment by sending motion and action requests back to the Tele-Actor by clicking on their web browser. Requests are treated as motion or action votes and are processed at the base station to provide a single stream of commands, which are then conveyed via cell-phone to the Tele-Actor, who responds accordingly.

The group of online Tele-Directors thus -collaborates- rather than competes for access. The Tele-Actor system will allow large groups of students or citizens to share in remote experiences. For example, this innovation will allow groups of disadvantaged students to collaboratively steer a Tele-Actor through a working steelmill in Japan or through the Presidential Inauguration, around a newly active volcano or through the streets of Nairobi.

The Tele-Actor system introduces two innovations: (1) the human Tele-Actor who is more agile than a tele-robot and is capable of improvisation, and (2) collaborative control, which allows many simultaneous participants over the Internet. We first demonstrated this system in Spring 2000 and are actively pursuing improvements as part of a broader research project in Collaborative Telerobotics.