Journal rm007's Journal: When will they ever learn? Another Videophone 4
State of the Art: Videophones Revisited, by Way of the Modem
February 19, 2004
By DAVID POGUE
I mean, everyone knows that videophones are far-fetched. Plenty of people have tried NetMeeting software from Microsoft or the Beamer videophone screen from Vialta, for example, and discovered that ordinary dial-up phone lines were never intended to carry a video signal. By the time the software compresses your image enough to fit through a phone wire, you look like a Picasso viewed through textured bathroom-door glass. But more than 30 percent of American homes now have much faster "pipes" coming into their homes: broadband Internet.
In general, cable modems and D.S.L. boxes offer much greater capacity, enough to carry clean, convincing video. Apple exploited this feature, for example, with its $140 iSight camera, a pocketcam that clips onto a Macintosh screen for free, high-quality Internet video calls.
Now a company called Viseon has taken the next step by creating an actual video telephone called the VisiFone. It looks like a typical, not especially sleek office phone, with a tilting six-inch flat-panel screen on top. Actually, if you inspect the thing more closely, you'll see another telltale difference: there's nowhere to plug in a telephone wire. Instead, you're supposed to plug the VisiFone into your cable modem or D.S.L. box.
Now, "no computer needed" is supposed to be one of the VisiFone's chief virtues, but can anyone spot the Catch-22 here? Anyone? Anyone?
That's right: Who on earth has a cable modem but not a computer?
Put another way, it's much more likely that your VisiFone will be sharing your computer's Internet connection. And that means you'll probably be hooking the phone up to a router (a box that lets you share your broadband connection with multiple Macs or PC's), somewhere on your home or office network. If you're a networking professional, this is no big deal. You simply assign the phone a static I.P. address, and then use the router's configuration page to open all ports , and of course plug in your subnet mask and gateway addresses. If that's all Greek to you, though, you have to call Viseon to walk you through 15 minutes of setting up networking addresses, which most people will find terrifying. (The manual offers 12 pages of geek-speak on this topic alone. Trust me, you'll be calling the company.) When it comes to calculating the VisiFone's odds for success in the consumer marketplace, this is Strike One.
Once connected, the VisiFone is ready to go. All you have to do is dial the network, or Internet Protocol address - not the phone number - of your lucky video friend. (An I.P. address looks like 127.54.36.45.) The Internet, not the phone company, will carry your call. (The VisiFone has a phone book, but unfortunately, many I.P. addresses change from time to time, giving you a little black book that's almost always out of date.)
But here's Strike Two, otherwise known as the First Fax-Machine Conundrum. As the Ghostbusters would say, who you gonna call? I placed calls to various Viseon employees in Dallas, and even one of its investors in New York. I also hooked up a second VisiFone at a neighbor's house to conduct, somewhat pointlessly, a video chat down the street.
If you have only one VisiFone, you have three alternatives. First, you can call Viseon's test line; it connects you to a VisiFone in Texas that's trained on a tacky Elvis Presley wall clock, its legs swaying back and forth like a pendulum. Second, it's technically possible to connect with somebody else whose videocam uses the so-called H.263 video protocol, like somebody using Microsoft NetMeeting. The people you call will see terrific video, but you'll see only the tiny, jerky output of their Webcams. Finally, the company says that the VisiFone can connect to corporate videoconferencing gear.
In any case, once you're connected, you finally understand why you've gone through all of this. The screen is big, the motion is smooth (30 frames per second, just like television), and the picture is super-crisp most of the time. Sudden movement can create momentary blocky distortion. Otherwise, though, using a videophone is clearly the new next best thing to being there - especially because, thanks to the Internet, you're not paying a penny for the privilege.
Using a videophone is a weird, wild experience, a cross between using the phone and being on TV. It's ideal for the functions that companies like Viseon inevitably cite: showing Grandma the new baby, showing clients sketches for the new advertising campaign, conferring with medical colleagues in distant cities, and so on.
To make the device even more useful, video inputs on the back accommodate a camcorder, a VCR or a DVD player. Tapping a Camera button on the phone switches its broadcast from the built-in camera to whatever you've hooked up back there. This way, you can use your camcorder to show Grandma something cute that the baby did earlier, even if the baby is currently unresponsive. The back of the phone also has outputs so that you can put Grandma on your big-screen TV for the whole family to enjoy. In short, having a high-speed Internet connection neatly solves the technological problems that have prevented videophones from becoming commonplace. It does not, however, solve the cultural problems.
Using the VisiFone makes you acutely aware of being on camera, especially if you tap the View button to place your own image in a small picture-in-picture rectangle on the screen. There are buttons that can "mute" the audio or video, freeze the outgoing picture while you perform small acts of personal grooming, and so on.
Nonetheless, a videophone deprives you of visual privacy. You're pretty much obligated to give the other guy your full attention, and even nod understandingly, while he talks; you can't doodle or shoot exasperated "What a windbag!" expressions at your spouse. You're locked in front of the phone, too, worried about centering yourself in the frame. (The screen tilts up and down, but not side to side.) You can't clip your nails or walk around, cleaning the apartment as you chat.
But what will really block the VisiFone's acceptance is its price: $600 each. Between you and Grandma, that's $1,200, enough to send her not just a videotape of the baby, but a whole home-entertainment center to play it on, too. That, alas, is Strike Three.
Still, even if the VisiFone amounts to nothing more than a plaything for lottery winners, or maybe a deductible expense for small businesses, it's an important proof of concept. It's the first simple-to-use desktop videophone that offers TV-like high quality. Viseon plans to send current owners a "firmware updater" next month that will eliminate the blockiness during motion, solve the changing-I.P. problem in the phone book,
and introduce compatibility with Internet phone-dialing services like Vonage. There's also a much more promising phone in the works for 2005, which Viseon says will use a new networking scheme (called S.I.P., or Session Initiation Protocol) with a host of other calling features. For example, it will let you dial a phone number rather than a networking address. More important, next year's phone will cost only half as much. (Competition from companies like WorldGate and D-Link, which are also readying Internet videophones, may help explain the price drop.)
It's more likely, though, that your first videophone won't come directly from Viseon at all. The company is already in discussions with cable and phone companies about using these phones as an incentive to sign up for cable or D.S.L. In that scenario, you might pay, say, $5 a month for unlimited video calls, but the phone itself would be free.
ever meet the inventor? (Score:1)
I don't really have anything substantive to say here other than I'll be passing the URL onto him. Sometimes he has witty input, other times merely an "ok, thanks."
Re:ever meet the inventor? (Score:2)
Re:ever meet the inventor? (Score:1)
Re:ever meet the inventor? (Score:2)