A robot can be broadly defined as a system where a mechanism is controlled by a computer. In telerobotics, the mechanism is remote. It sends back data and is generally controlled by a human at the other end. Telerobotics is an active research area, supported by NASA and the DOD in this country and by similar agencies abroad. For the first time in history, telerobotics is now widely accessible to nonspecialists via the Net.
Web cameras are the most common, claiming to providing live remote images.
Robotic devices provide a further level of interactivity by allowing participants to manipulate the remote environment which may include a model railroad, scupture, or garden. VR presents a simulacrum, a synthetic construction. With telerobotics, what is being experienced is distal rather than simulacral. When visiting a telerobotic site on the net, the alert viewer inevitably wonders whether in fact the site is indeed live or a series of prestored photographs. One of the most notorious web cameras was hidden in the ceiling above a public restroom stall.