Imagine being in two places at the same time. Impossible? Well, maybe, but with the advances currently being made in videoconferencing technology you might well believe you can be in two places at once.
It's called telepresence and it is so life-like it's been installed in restaurants in the US so that diners can eat together even if they are in different parts of the country.
"It means that if you're on the East Coast you can be eating dinner while someone on the West Coast is having lunch," explains Aaron McCormack, CEO of BT Conferencing. "It's just like having a meal together except you're thousands of miles apart. The only thing you can't do is pass the salt."
This might sound like something out of a 1950s sci-fi novel but it really is happening. Telepresence isn't just a camera, microphone and a TV screen. Those taking part see life-size images of people who can be on the other side of the world. The image and sound quality is so good, it's as if you're with them in the same room.
Media-Saturn group - Europe's biggest retailer of consumer electronics, with operations in 14 countries - has recently agreed to adopt BT's telepresence service called BT Unified Communications Video. It enables people from different countries to hold virtual meetings of unprecedented technological quality, with those taking part seeing life-size images of one another. The images are so realistic that people believe they really are sitting at the same table.
One person who's already used the service described it as being "virtually indistinguishable from a face-to-face meeting". It's clear that telepresence solutions are going to revolutionise the videoconferencing industry and have a real impact on the way people communicate in the future.
"Conferencing delivers real benefits," says Aaron. "It cuts costs, it cuts your carbon footprint because there is less need to travel. And it improves the all important work/life balance. Videoconferencing means you don't have to get up at four in the morning to catch a flight to Munich for a meeting, only to return home by midnight."
But there are other technological advances being lined up that could make dramatic changes to the way people work. Called collaboration engines, they will effectively give office staff their own computerised personal assistant. These digital PAs will be able to "talk" to other digital PAs to fix meetings regardless of location or time zone, find the right person for the job and even translate conversations. And all the time this is being done, office workers will be able to get on and do their job without being bogged down in admin.
"Collaboration engines are the next big thing," says Aaron. "They are going to become the brains behind an organisation, automatically ensuring that the right people get to speak to one another at a time that is convenient for them all. Time zone, location - even language - will not be a barrier to these meetings taking place.
"In five years time, these collaboration engines will be fed with the details of a project, for example, and tell knowledge workers who they need to speak to and when they need to speak to them," predicts Aaron. "Collaboration engines will schedule meetings automatically."
The significance of such collaboration tools only really becomes apparent when you consider how people work today. Increasingly, people are expected to do more work in less time. At the same time, they can receive dozens of phone calls each day and for many people it's not uncommon to receive more than 100 e-mails. Collaborative tools would help clear a path for workers to be more productive.
Coupled with telepresence technology, you could soon be holding a meeting with colleagues on the other side of the world, arranged by a collaboration engine that acts as a translator and personal PA. With the advances being made, it would seem like you were all in the same room together. You could even stop for something to eat. Who knows, by then they may have devised a way to pass the salt across continents as well.