[GFischer]

Startups with money to burn could buy one of those remote robots for telepresence :) like the Anybots QB

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robot...

or the texai

http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-softwar...

Maybe one day this will become commonplace (when they become an order of magnitude cheaper, I suspect). Meanwhile, Skype is a good idea.

[DeepDuh]

"Startups with money to burn"

What is that sorcery you are speaking of? ;)