Videophone

The videophone is reality now more than ever.  The first picture phone test was built in 1956.  It was a large bulky hard to operate machine that transmitted images about every two seconds.  The first real experimental system was made and it was called the "Mod 1."   It was tested publicly in special exhibits at Disneyland and the New York's Worlds Fair in 1964.  Participants of the test picture phone were interviewed after they tried the device.  People did not like the picture phone.   It was a not user friendly and it took up lots of space.  One big problem was the transmitted picture was too small.

 

Trials and tests went on until 1970 and commercial picture phone machines were available to the public after their debut in Pittsburgh by AT&T executives.  They predicted that they would sell a million picture phones by 1980.  The idea never took off.  The main problem was still the size and complicated use of the machine.  Some people did not like the idea of people coming into their house from the telephone system.

The idea was finally taken into consideration for the work place and the business community.  The idea of being able to hold conferences in a more than one place at once was a needed venture in the field.  The incorporation of the Internet and the ability to transfer large amounts of information between two places was the factor in the next phase of the videophone. 

In 1993 the model 70 was released it was the next machine after the picture phone.  IT was program on the computer with simultaneous video communication, ability to open, view and edit files.  One positive feature was the option of sending text from a keyboard with the message.  In Nov of 1993 an audio conferencing software from Novell was released.  This was a program to hold conferences between two different cities.

Videophones are in use today and can be purchased for a lot of money. The only problems with this form of communication are the bandwidth needed to send that much data to another receiver.  Many large corporate agencies can afford this technology, but the average consumer can not afford this luxury.  The picture is still fuzzy and it not as good as a TV screen.  I think that in a couple of years that it will be a more popular way of communication in the workplace, but it may take a while before it is in the home.

 

More information

            

Elauterio Eli Salazar
1-28-02
MCCNM 336
5minute report

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