Imagine talking to someone on a television-like screen and they can actually see you and hear every word they say and you can see and hear them as well.

Well, with telepresence, you no longer have to imagine, because today, that's a virtual reality. Telepresence has become the wave of the present, and evidently it will also be the wave of the future-At least for the time being.

Telepresence is the technology that gives users the feeling that they were actually physically present when talking to another person, although they are actually someplace else, which can be in the same vicinity or thousands of miles away.

Telepresence has been become more of a neccessity than realised, especially in this information age, when it seems that technology is getting more and more innovative and sophisticated in their methods.

Telepresence is not new, actually it dates back to the early days of the Telly, in the 1950's, in which it was used on an experimentary basis, especially in the US and UK. But at the time, it was viewed as sometime of a novelty, or toy. Many at the time thought it would not catch on.

But in recent decades, even more so, in recennt years, there has been great strides in technology as never before previously, especially in telecommunications. With the rise of the internet in the mid-1990's telecommunications have taken on an entirely different meaning.

With major communication companies in fierce competiton with each other to come out with the most innovative means of communication, the best eye-catching device to catch the public's fancy, it is no surprise that telepresence has come in all on its own.

Now, all a person has to do when they want to talk to a friend or relative is to simply go online to contact them by means of telepresence, without having to physically visit them. And you can see them and they can see you, face-to-face, just as if you were actually talking to them in the flesh in your very own parlor.

It seems that telecommunications are becoming more and more simplified as people can sit in the comfort of their very own homes and talk to their loved ones and see them and hear them respond and the user does the same thing in kind.

It's simply smashing, don't you think? JUst to think, barely a hundred years ago most persons hardly had callboxes, now they can speak to each other on a screen!