Telepresence, the perception of presence within a physically remote or simu
lated site, has been identified as a design ideal for synthetic environment
s. However, confusion exists within the literature about the precise defini
tion of telepresence. Furthermore, there is a need for a plausible and pars
imonious model of telepresence. This paper identifies three types of telepr
esence extant in the literature: simple telepresence, cybernetic telepresen
ce, and experiential telepresence. The third definition is the most interes
ting. This paper reviews the origins of experiential telepresence and the t
heoretical approaches commonly used to explain it. One can term these techn
ological approaches, which emphasize the role of control/display technology
, and psychological approaches, which identify experiential telepresence wi
th known psychological phenomena. Finally, the paper presents and discusses
an integrative approach to telepresence featuring a structured attentional
resource model. Actual or potential applications of this research include
the design of future human-machine interfaces for teleoperated robots and v
irtual reality systems.