I recently moved around in an office nearly 3,000 miles away from where I was sitting.  OK, not me exactly.  It was more like my double.  Using Skype to connect, I sat at my desk and maneuvered what is essentially a robot around an office suite in the San Francisco area, talking to the occupants, and moving about, even in and out of one of offices.  I swiveled, moved ahead, and then sped forward, slowly getting comfortable with my keyboard controls to navigate.  I tried to get a sense of how wide my robotic self was and, at first, worried that I might run into door frames as I passed from one room to another.  I pressed on the arrow keys on my keyboard to select my direction, go forward and backward, and turn right or left.  I slowly became more confident with the controls.  I managed to make my robot self a little taller (something that I wish that I could do with my body) and adjusted my view.  Through the robot’s screen, I smiled at the other people in the room, asked about their new offices, admired the view of the San Francisco Bay and began to think about how telepresence technology could dramatically change the experience of telecommuting.

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