Videophone

A videophone is a Telephone which is capable of both Audio and Video Duplex Transmission .

AT&T conducted experiments and demonstrations of a "Picturephone" product and service in the early 1960s . Among the first manufacturers of commercially viable videophones was Toshiba .

Videotelephony is mostly used in large corporate setups, and are supported by systems such as Cisco CallManager . Other companies such as Tandberg , Radvision , and Polycom also offer similar solutions. Videoconferencing has generally been limited to the H.323 Protocol (notably Cisco's SCCP implementation is an exception), however recently a shift towards SIP implementations is seen. In accordance with the adoption of SIP telephony for home users, videotelephony is also slowly becoming available to home users.

Another protocol using videophones is H.324 ; this allows videophones to work in regular phone lines, since the bandwidth is limited by the phone line. The quality is about fifteen Frames Per Second . This type of videophone is widely used because of the affordable price.

Today the principles, if not the precise mechanisms of a videophone are employed by thousands of users world-wide in the form of Webcam conferences using cheaply available webcams and microphones employed using software over the internet.

In 2004 Telmex, the biggest telephone service provider in Mexico , introduced Videophone service for all of its suscribers. The suscriber only needs to buy the Videophone unit and connect it. Calls cost 1 mexican peso per minute (about $0.10 USD per minute) regardless of the destination troughout the country. The service, as of March 2006, had not enjoyed widespread adoption.

In 2006 ACN Inc. , the worlds largest direct selling telecommunications services provider, added videophones to their repertoire of products. Using VoIP technology, consumers plug their IPVP 5410S Video Phone or Wooksung 2100 Video Phone into an Ethernet connection and make calls like they would any other phone. For $23.99 per month, all calls are to the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico are free. Also, rates to other countries are generally much more cost effective than traditional Landline service (PSTN).

TRIVIA

In many Science Fiction Movies and shows that take place in the future, videophones are used as a primary method of communication. One example of a fictional videophone is the Picturephone from Pee-wee's Playhouse .

A device with the same functionality was used by the cartoon character Dick Tracy since the 1930's. Called the "2-way Wrist TV", the fictional detective often uses the phone to communicate with the police headquarters.

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Videophone