For now, sure, obviously it'll be more natural to use the mediums that are pervasive on commercially available devices that are backed by several industries-wor

For now, sure, obviously it'll be more natural to use the mediums that are pervasive on commercially available devices that are backed by several industries-worth of engineers and developers, compared to some systems hacked together by handful of grad students in some lab somewhere or hardware startups in a very nascent stage. Hardware is hard, and these platforms are just beginning to explore the possible application spaces of which there is still a lot of research to be done. My personal view on many of these telepresence platforms is that they're basically roving tablets with limited embodied expressiveness and no manipulation capability, which are whole subfields of research in-and-of themselves, and that addressing these limitations will eke out more value of telepresence robots in the future. The point of research (ideally) shouldn't be an immediate VC-backable commercial application, but rather to explore possible futures viable 5-10+ years down the road.