Stop me if this sounds familiar. You work in a tight-knit team that has one or two colleagues who are located in a different office�across the street, across the state, or across the country. You�d like to communicate with them more regularly, but phone calls, e-mails, and video conferences have to do. Inevitably, you feel like you (and they) miss out on some day-to-day interactions that help all of you stay fully connected to the company�s goals and culture.

Microsoft feels your pain�and its researchers are trying to do something about it. That�s why a group from Microsoft Research, based in Redmond, WA, is presenting a paper tomorrow at CHI 2010, the big international conference on human-computer interaction in Atlanta. The team, led by senior researchers Gina Venolia and John Tang, has developed a prototype system that gives a satellite colleague a �telepresence� not just in meetings but in the daily workflow of the hub office. They pull this trick with basically a laptop, speakerphone, and webcams on a cart, plus software to coordinate it all. Their project is called �Embodied Social Proxy,� or ESP.