One of the problems with remote imaging which purports to represent the real world (Tele-presence) is that the images are two-dimensional and the “real” world is three dimensional. When viewing many objects, the lack of depth perceptiorican be a serious deficiency. For example, one would want a micro-surgeon to have a good idea how deep to cut into tissue during a tele-presence operation. There is a wealth of three dimensional information in light, SEM, AFM, confocal, and computer reconstructed or simulated objects. To transfer that information faithfully over the networks using broadcast quality high definition video transmission technologies such as MPEG2 may require as much as 20 Mbps per channel. Furthermore, stereo imaging is particularly sensitive to any phase delays and jitter between the two eye channels. Control of these parameters requires advance quality of service features that current internet does not provide, but that may be available on high-performance intranets. All this may present a problem for routine use of the stereo facility .

The next generation of Internet, however, will be able to routinely provision much higher bandwidth and other quality of service, in general through protocols that will allow for not only full screen full resolution television but also the use of two channels (left and right) that can stay in fairly close synchrony.