Telepresence cost

Ruzena Bajcsy has been toiling away for the past three years on a 3D-videoconferencing system that could have a very personal benefit. For Bajcsy, the Tele-immersive Environment for Everybody (TEEVE) project is more than just developing new ways for organizations and companies to interact. It holds the promise of one day allowing the 74-year-old grandmother to virtually appear in the same room as her four grandchildren, even though they're living in other states. "Currently, videoconferencing is very limited. It just shows your face or a small image, and is not very robust," said Bajcsy, an electrical-engineering and computer science professor at the University of California at Berkeley. ***