We have covered this technology of telepresence before, like the Anybot Telepresence Robot back at CES 2009. The purpose of telepresence tech is to make the user feel like they are having a conversation with a real person instead of a communication device.

Japan’s ATR and Osaka University have developed this Telepresence robot called the Telenoid R1 Robot.

As you may have noticed, this Telenoid looks very human. The reason is that it makes the interaction between a human and this mechanism as realistic as possible as the Telenoid matches the gestures of the person on the other side.

How it does this, I have no idea. I would imagine that the person connected to the Telenoid would have to have a lot of wires in him to match all their gestures. Then again, if Microsoft’s Kinect can detect our movements, who is to say whether or not a webcam or some other similar device can detect the subtleties of our features.

I am assuming that the gestures it transmits are all facial, as this thing does not have the arms required for the “talking with their hands” that most people use in conversation.

Man, I tell you, if I walked in a room and saw this thing, I know who I’m gonna call. That would be the Ghostbusters for those who don’t get this reference.

I believe this will be $8,000 when they finally get it running.