Robot Avatars
If you've had the good fortune to be at a conference where Matt Webb has spoken recently (e.g., EuroOSCON), you'll have seen the Schulze and Webb Availabot. It's a tiny puppet that plugs into your USB port and stands to attention when a given buddy comes online in AIM. Cute, simple, and apparently prophetic of the future. The Globe and Mail has an interesting article on robotic puppets. Imagine videoconferencing not with pictures on the screen but a robot that uses compressed air to make gestures and which even has moving lips.
Current teleconferencing and videoconferencing feels incomplete--it's a problem that needs a solution, and animatronic avatars may well be the way. The best part is that you can arrange them however you want. I imagine Cory dressing the avatars in his office like pirates and wenches, so every teleconference feels like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It'd certainly make weekly status meetings a lot more interesting!
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Ideally the robot avatars would be at the other end. In other words, your robot is at the meeting or conference that you can't attend in person.
But you control it remotely from your computer, look through its eyes, direct its gaze, and speak through its mouth. If someone hands out a sheet of paper, you ought to be able to read it looking down through the robot's eyes.
This has the potential to also solve the problem of people at the meeting trying to guess who is the voice on the phone in the middle of the table since "your" robot can display a life-size image of your face--that is if you choose to send one.
When remote participants have robot avatars attending the real-life meeting or conference, they have a greater "presence", a better sense of what is going on and better opportunities to participate.
For paid conferences, conference organizers could offer these robot avatars for an additional fee.
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