You can buy small, light helicopters. So take one of these and stick a small screen on the front, about the size of your face (it would have to be made of OLED to be light enough, so let's say ETA 3-5 years or so). Add a small camera, microphone+mini speakers, and a wireless net connection, and you have the floating head.
To be telepresent, you wear a head-mounted rig containing a camera on a stalk pointing at your face, a microphone + headphones + eyephones (all pretty ugly, but available now), and a polhemus-style 6-degree-of-freedom sensor. The copter then moves to match your movements (avoiding obstacles of course). The image of your face appears on the helicopter's OLED screen, your voice comes out of its speakers, and you see/hear what it does.
This might work with a tether to provide power as well.-- bumhat, Jan 16 2005 the hat o nine tails Hat_20o_27_20Nine_20Tails [benfrost, Jan 17 2005] Zardoz http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070948/197X Movie Conspicuously Featuring a Floating Stone Head [contracts, Jan 18 2005] Would the helicopter be painted like a beanie?-- tiromancer, Jan 16 2005 I guess you're not a celebrity, with this camera in your face idea.-- mensmaximus, Jan 16 2005 Cool, so you can see how weird you look with the head-mounted rig containing a camera on a stalk pointing at your face, a microphone + headphones + eyephones (all pretty ugly, but available now), and a polhemus-style 6-degree-of-freedom sensor. I've always wondered how I'd look with all that head gear.-- Machiavelli, Jan 17 2005 Super Arch Villian Bumhat Terrorises City with Flying Face Minions. Thwarted by Children's Baseball Team.-- benfrost, Jan 17 2005 Bumhat... are you a Weebl and Bob fan?-- david_scothern, Jan 17 2005 Monstrously wonderful (+). Like the hovering droid that probed Princess Leia, posessed by Max Headroom.-- robinism, Jan 18 2005 Ever been around one of those remote controlled helicopters? You would have a difficult time hearing the other person and they would have a difficult time hearing you unless you can separate microphone and speakers from the floating head. "WHAT?!!"-- I808, Oct 31 2008 Now let's just say that we do this and that it all works as designed, well maybe we add floating ears to the solve the noise problem 1808 brought up. Now what?
Does the screen precede us to warn the world that someone very weird is coming. Can we run a Photoshop filter to turn are skin to a greenish tint and scare kids.
Or do we face the screen towards us so that we know that every hair is in place despite the windy conditions. I do think the tether is a good idea.
That said I am giving you a bun for originality. [+]-- theGem, Oct 31 2008 Completely unfeasible. [+]-- wagster, Oct 31 2008 Very usefull for chasing criminals? a definite [+].-- kamathln, Nov 01 2008 random, halfbakery