Now this is cool!

[edschweppe]

From the BBC: 'Teleporting' over the internet

Computer scientists in the US are developing a system which would allow people to "teleport" a solid 3D recreation of themselves over the internet.

[...]

"We can't teleport somebody - nobody's going to travel anywhere - but if we're in our own rooms a system of cameras will capture exactly what's in each room."

He said that these cameras would work much the same way as the character of Gollum was created by capturing the movements of actor Andy Serkis in the Lord Of The Rings films.

Mr Serkis wore a special suit and the cameras were able to interpret his movements.

"That information is turned into some representation - a three-dimensional version of an mpeg [computer video file] - like a DVD," Dr Mowry added.

"You capture it digitally, ship it over across the network, and then reproduce a physical object that looks just like the original object, and moves just like it."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4102018.stm

Actually, it sounds to me like "avatars" describes the result better than "teleporting". But it's still a neat sounding concept.

Not to mention the possibilities for next-generation teledildonics ...