Telepresence App Documentation
Telepresence lets you inhabit a distant place through a robot — seeing, hearing, and moving as if you were actually there. With a live camera feed and remote control, you can drive a robot around, explore its surroundings, talk to people, or even complete mission-style challenges using only the onboard vision. It’s like operating a small Mars rover… just without the 20-minute signal delay.
Supported platforms
- Desktop web browser – Chrome, Edge, Opera
- Android
- ChromeOS
- iPhone or iPad – via Bluefy web browser, minimum iOS 14
Supported microcontrollers
- BBC Micro:Bit – SAMPLE CODE
- Calliope mini – SAMPLE CODE
PLEASE NOTE – if you recreate this code in new project in makecode your have to modify bluetooth settings to make your board discoverable by the app. Best practice is to open this sample code project and modify it.
How it works?
- Open the app in any modern browser (Chrome, Opera, Edge, or Bluefy on iOS). It works as a progressive web app, so no installation is needed.
- Use two devices:
- a smartphone mounted on the robot
- a laptop/tablet/second phone for remote control.
- Open the app on both devices, allow camera access, and wait for the random ID to appear at the top. Tap the phone-call icon and enter the ID of the device you want to connect to. If successful, you’ll see its camera view. Double-tap the video to zoom .
- Both devices must be on the same local Wi-Fi network. The app cannot connect over mobile data or across the internet due to network restrictions.
- The robot-mounted phone connects to its controller via Bluetooth. Tap the robot-head icon, select your BBC Micro:Bit or Calliope mini, and pair it. Make sure the board is running the sample code from the documentation.
- Open the gamepad interface. You can use touch or keyboard: arrows for movement, plus/minus and bracket keys for sliders.
- Every gamepad action sends a simple text command (e.g., LEFT, left, x23). Your robot code only needs basic IF conditions to interpret them.
- The gamepad also includes a camera-flip button to switch between front and rear cameras on the remote device.
- On desktop computers you can use keyboard keys to control the robot – arow keys for directions, -,+,[,] for sliders.
- Audio is transmitted, but the microphone starts muted. Be careful with feedback: speaker output can loop back into the mic and create echo or squealing. External microphones help reduce this effect.
