We have talked about telecommuting before. Normally it involves working from home on your PC but you never have and face to face interaction with employees at the office. At best, you would generally phone in for a conference call if needed but no one ever saw your face. That could be changing as there are these new devices that some businesses are adopting which provide a new type of technology call telepresence (see image to the left).

Basically it is an elevated LCD screen on wheels. You at home would control this device remotely which allows you to navigate the office as visualized through a front mounted camera on the top. Further, you face is project on the screen for people in the office to see as the “robot” moves about the office. Many would find this whole thing rather awkward and in all likelihood the device will bump into stuff and need doors opened for it unless so extra, meaning expensive, environment features were added. This could very well be a glimpse at the future of the office environment but that is a long time off. Tech Review continues, “Scott Hassan, an early Google engineer and now an investor and entrepreneur, thinks he has the solution for companies that think they're wasting time and money chasing new hires: make it more practical for engineers living in cheaper places to telecommute to work. His company, Suitable Technologies, has developed a roving telepresence system that is five feet, two inches tall, placing its 17-inch screen at roughly the right height for a hallway conversation. It is not the first mobile telepresence system to hit the market, but Hassan says it has features that will make it more practical and less awkward to use than previous systems…”