When you can't be somewhere in person, you can check things out virtually through the concept of telepresence. But not all solutions are created equal, which is where Revolve Robotics' new product Kubi comes in. It's smarter than a stand but cheaper than a robot.

Kubi is a motorized tablet stand that lets you look around the room during video-conferencing sessions. It can pan up to 300 degrees and has a tilt range of 90 degrees. The device's spring-loaded "arms" pinch together to hold a tablet – just about any tablet – in portrait or landscape mode.

"We wanted to distill where the value is in a telepresence product," Revolve Robotics founder Marcus Rosenthal told Wired. "We realized it's the ability to look around the room and be present, not necessarily move from room to room."

That's key, because it's the mobility that makes telepresence robots so expensive. By keeping Kubi stationary and letting you supply the tablet, Revolve Robotics kept the cost to $250. Compare that to the Anybots QB robot, which launched in 2010 with a $15,000 price tag. Suitable Technologies' Beam telepresence solution is $16,000. Even the Double, one of the cheapest telepresence robots out there, will cost $2,500 when it goes on sale in 2013.

You operate Kubi remotely using a grid-based web interface. Revolve decided to use a web interface rather than a native app for the controls so that the device remains platform agnostic. You just tap around to adjust the tilt (on the Y-axis of the grid) or the angle of viewing (the X-axis). Kubi is Bluetooth 4.0 compatible, and the team plans to open up the API so developers can have some fun with it.

Revolve Robotics is looking for funding on Indiegogo to complete final mass production of Kubi.