Telepresence is a sophisticated form of robotic remote control
in which a human operator has a sense of being on location so
that the experience resembles virtual reality (VR). The
remotely-controlled robot (or telechir ) and the human operator
can be up to hundreds of kilometers apart. Control and feedback
are done by telemetry over wires, optical fibers, wireless
links, or the Internet. In a telepresence system, the telechir
is often a humanoid robot, also known as an android . The
control station can consist of a full body suit that the user
wears. Sensors detect, and transducers reproduce, sensations of
vision and sound. In some systems, tactile sensing is also
possible (this is called haptics ). The user wears headgear with
a display and headphones that reproduce scenes and sounds as
they appear at the site of the telechir. Binocular machine
vision allows a sense of depth. Binaural machine hearing
facilitates the perception of sounds with a sense of loudness
and direction. The telechir may have one or tw