Was reading this old Pulver article on the relative failure (to date) of video IM and videoconferencing to capture the public imagination. Some interesting comments below the article.
I like the “show and tell” concept of mobile telephony, mixing voice and video. With the sprouting of many phones with dual cameras, I can’t help but think: why do none of them have the second camera along the front/left edge, so you can share what you see while you speak? Or am I missing something obvious?
Posted by Martin Geddes at 11:26 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telepocalypse.net/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/mgeddes/MT/mt-tb.cgi/541.
Wouldn't that be a little dependant on you holding the phone to your ear? Perhaps a bluetooth headset with inbuilt camera in the front of the mic.
You could also add an optional mirror attachment that allows the camera to view your face, but watch out when turning quickly or you might have someone's eye out!
The typical setup I've seen (for example with DoCoMo's 3G-324M video telephony service in Japan) uses a headset for the audio. The high res camera faces out, so you point it at what you want to show while monitoring the transmission on your local screen. As I commented at the IMTC Forum in May, "see what I see" appears to be the most popular use of video telephony in Japan.
Posted by: at August 16, 2005 08:40 PMMartin:
Enjoy your blog.. 8-)
My V902SH (3G) handset by Sharp on Vodafone allows the choice (incld. switch during conversation) between the inner-cam facing me and the outer-cam facing the scence ahead. This same unit has been shipping for about 6 months into EU as well.
My take on adoption rate in Japan would make a rather long post but for now lets just say that since all 3 carriers here do not offer vid-con services, interoperability is an issue. Perhaps we'll see a tipping point and mass adoption once any(every)one has access..?!? Meanwhile the teens growing up with this technology will be the ones to decide it's make or break.. imho!
Cheers,
Lars.
Posted by: at August 17, 2005 08:35 AMMartin, I agree with you about the appeal of the service you are talking , but it is commercial in Italy since dec 2004 by www.tim.it telecom italia mobile with the "turbo call" brand. It's part of the so called "combinational services", based on phones that can take both a circuit gsm and IP packet radio simultanously active. Ericsson and Nokia have extensive documentation of these services at their site ...
Unfortunatly only very few Nokia handsets support it ...
Gabriel