Helping kids learn is just one aspect of this technology. Telepresence was first popularized by Robert Heinlein in a short story called “Waldo” about a genius boy who builds remote-controlled hands to overcome his physical challenges. Now there’s research going on to use telepresence in applications from surgery to combat.

Lying in his hospital room, on a mattress designed to protect his fragile skin, 13-year-old Achim Nurse poked his bandaged fingers at an orange button on what looked like a souped-up video game console.Half a second later, in a social studies class discussing the Erie Canal, a 5-foot-tall steel-blue robot raised its hand.

“You have a question, Achim?” said the teacher.

Achim is using a pair of robots — one, called “Mr. Spike,” at his bedside, and its mate, “Mrs. Candy,” in the classroom — to keep up with his schoolwork and his friends for the months he will be bedridden at Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, just north of New York City.

What other application areas would benefit from this?