They weep or laugh, smile and point at each other, kiss the babies they hold on their own laps, then start to talk and try to catch up on months or years of separation. But they can't physically reach out to touch or hug one another. These emotional reunions take place across a distance of more than 1,500 miles, not in person.

Dominicans in northern Manhattan or "Alto Manhattan" have started using a high quality videoconferencing connection established three weeks ago by Face to Face Media, LLC - or "Cara a Cara" to not only talk with, but see "onscreen, live" their families and friends back in Santa Domingo.

Face to Face Media, located at 174 Dyckman St., hopes to tap into the extensive family, business and political connections between the Dominican Republic and the United States. More than 530,000 Dominicans live in New York City currently, based on the 2000 U.S. census.

Face to Face Media charges its U.S. clients for the use of a small room equipped with a 42-inch plasma screen and sophisticated camera and audio equipment to communicate instantly with their counterparts in the Dominican Republic. The company's facilities in Santa Domingo are similar.

Most of the company's first videoconferencing users have been families.

Dylan Norton, chief executive officer of Face to Face Media, said that seeing families re-connect is an incredible experience.

One of Face to Face Media's first clients, Josepha Bido, is deaf. She has not returned to the Dominican Republic for five years and cannot successfully communicate with her family by phone. "She came in for the first time and signed with her family for four-and-a-half hours," Norton said.

The company's standard rates for videoconferencing vary between $1.00 and $3.00 per minute, depending on the size of the room, time of day and length of the videoconference. Norton said that the cost of videoconferencing compares favorably with long-distance calls, especially when family members divide the cost among the participants.

"No one else is doing anything like this," Norton said. He said that Web cams, used between personal computers, generate relatively small and poor pictures with little or no audio and lacked secure or reliable connections.

Josh Harlan and Norton, former Harvard roommates, co-founded Face to Face Media last September. Harlan, who came up with the concept, said that if people were going into low-cost phone booths to make calls, then they would want to go into a private room and hold a personal videoconference.

Face to Face Media demonstrated its videoconferencing capabilities earlier this month for elected officials, community leaders and members of the press.

"This will get a lot of attention in the Dominican community and I'm looking forward to using it myself," State Senator Eric Schneiderman said about the videoconferencing technology.

Moises Perez, executive director of Alianza Dominicana, had a chance to use the videoconferencing equipment to see and talk with his brother in the Dominican Republic. Perez said that the new technology is historic. "Feel fantastic about it. It's a revolution for the immigrant community, not just Dominican. This new technology has applications right across the board -- personal, financial and political. But this new business and service is meant for personal use."

Maria Pena, her husband and two-year-old son have already used a videoconferencing room and equipment at Face to Face Media twice to talk with -- and see -- her family in the Dominican Republic. Pena said that after she talked with her older brother, "I dreamed about him. I had the sensation that I'd seen him." Now she is making plans with her Dominican relatives to surprise her mother with a videoconference reunion on Mother's Day.

Robert Hoffmann reunited with his girlfriend in the Dominican Republic whom he hadn't seen in six months. He is planning to set up a videoconference with his grandmother, whom he hasn't seen in three years, and other relatives in the Dominican Republic at the end of April. "You feel like you're touching each other's hands," he said.