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The History of the Videophone In Sci-Fi
bejiitas_wrath writes "Ars Technica has an interesting story about the history of the videophone in Science Fiction. Star Trek has always depicted the video calling when hailing ships and planets, but even the 1935 movie The Tunnel depicted video calling from one continent to another and even video calling from airplanes! And huge public video screens showing the news and current events. Now we can use Skype to call one another over the Internet and video call with mobile `phones, but the video quality is nowhere near the quality shown in the film 2001 or the aforementioned Transatlantic Tunnel film."
Mostly, people just aren't that keen on video calling. It's honestly kind of a pain: you have to keep looking at the screen, avoid scratching your face, or doing anything else while you're talking. With a plain old audio call, you can lay around on the bed in your underwear while simultaneously reading slashdot during the boring parts of the conversation. We've had the technology to do video calling for quite a while - people just aren't that into it.
Now we can use Skype to call one another over the Internet and video call with mobile `phones, but the video quality is nowhere near the quality shown in the film 2001 or the aforementioned Transatlantic Tunnel film.
Today's headline: Technology Yet To Surpass Imagination!
Here's some insight into this situation: someone has to imagine it before someone implements it.
I'm curious, did you somehow post that comment without looking at a screen?
TFA has nothing to do with the history of the videophone in sci-fi.
I like to multi-task while on the phone (w/ my bluetooth headset). I can't do that easily with a video phone.
i.e. TALK AND....play xbox, do the dishes, watch tv, drive my car, go to the bathroom, eat, etc.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
What radiation? We're not using CRTs anymore.
And I'm allergic to dairy, you insensitive clod!
I believe that the issue you are referring to is the radiated emissions from cathode ray tube (CRT) screens. As these are all but obsolete now, this should no longer be a problem.
Metropolis. 1927
Technoli
TFA is about the history of the video phone in real life.
Occam's Razor says:
It's much more likely that they developed back pain from lifting the heavy objects (TVs et al) than it is that the developed it as a result of radiation produced by the devices, as the former only assumes the existence of heavy devices while the latter assumes their existence, their production of radiation, and a mechanism by which the radiation could cause back pain.
Also radiation isn't water, it doesn't behave anything like a "pool".
I'm not surprised that a professional practitioner of pseudo-science would also be taken in by pseudo-scientific articles.
Try thinking about it this way: if a magnetic bracelet on your wrist is helpful to your health, then being surrounded by electric or magnetic fields (the only kind of "radiation" other than light you would be exposed to by these devices today... and not even much of that) should be even more beneficial to your health!
With the amount of junk I eat and the amount of booze I drink a bit of radiation is the least of my worries. Oh and sometimes I eat red meat whilst injecting opiates.
Praying on people with fertility problems to peddle your pseudo scientific BS (as per your sig) is below reprehensible. These people have enough problems without having to deal with false hope from the likes of you.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
An article on video conferencing with a single paragraph tangentially referring star trek is not a history of sci-fi or anything else.
The technology isn't the issue. We can do video calling right now, and have been able to do so for some time. The thing is that people don't WANT video calling.
Lots of technology is ancient. I walked up the stairs to my office today, even though the building has an elevator. People still write with pencil and paper. Electricity is still transmitted with 60 Hz A/C technology that Tesla would recognize. The point is that technology upgrades aren't an end in themselves - they need to meet some need people have. And people don't apparently need to do video calling.
For breaking up Ma Bell. That's why they couldn't bring high quality video calling to the moon. Of course they still couldn't have gotten there because PanAm folded. Not to mention the Soviet Union. Clarke was really bad at predicting the future ;-)
Fandroids hate facts.
You should take the matter in your own hands and fix it up yourself, think about the childrens you would be saving!
Hi Bob, The Chiropractic Spambot,
Go peddle your snake oil on the street corner.
Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
Dr Bob, FTW! kudos, sir.
I wonder if Tezuka ever saw the film "the Tunnel". Could have given him the idea for "Marine Express"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undersea_Super_Train:_Marine_Express
Metropolis is from 1927 and shows a television communication between the leader of Metropolis and an engineer at a failing machine.
She touched the isolation knob, so that no one else could speak to her. Then she touched the lighting apparatus, and the little room was plunged into darkness.
"Be quick!" She called, her irritation returning. "Be quick, Kuno; here I am in the dark wasting my time."
But it was fully fifteen seconds before the round plate that she held in her hands began to glow. A faint blue light shot across it, darkening to purple, and presently she could see the image of her son, who lived on the other side of the earth, and he could see her.
"Kuno, how slow you are."
He smiled gravely.
"I really believe you enjoy dawdling."
"I have called you before, mother, but you were always busy or isolated. I have something particular to say."
Primitive, but a video-phone. Envisioned in or prior too 1907
Has the submitter ever used a Cisco HD Telepresence system? The quality is definitely better than I remember from 2001.
At launch last October, the set-top console and HD camera cost a whopping $599, with a $24.99 monthly service charge (now $99 yearly). While that price has since been reduced to $499 - and a $399, 720p unit introduced, it's still absurdly expensive when compared to the video calling alternatives.
"Absurdly expensive"? An unlocked iPhone 4 costs $599. (Yes, there are iPhone discounts if you agree to pay about $1000 a year to the cellular carrier for a few years.)
Until they can get the camera in the middle of the display, then I find it annoying to use most video phone systems. The other persons eyes are never looking right at you. Try having a face-to-face conversation while the person is looking several inches away from your eyes and it can be annoying.
Oh, wait, some women must experience every conversation that way...
not to mention they all but fixed that 20+ years ago
they suffer back pain cause they pound concrete chasing after customers all day every day sometimes for double shifts you dingbat
You are aware that visible light is also electromagnetic radiation (as well as infrared and ultraviolet - both provided in gratuitous amounts by the sun... far more than produced by any artificial light source)
Of course the back pain reported by workers of electronics stores has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they are likely moving heavy objects (probably without taking proper precautions to prevent injury) and are on their feet for most if not all of their shifts.
Ignorance does not improve the credibility of your field.
Let's not forget the two-way video wristwatch invented in the comic "Dick Tracy" by tech support guy Diet Smith in 1964. Many of us grew up dreaming of the day when we'd get to wear one of those things.
TLR
A man no more knows his destiny than a tea leaf knows the history of the East India Company
Out of idle curiosity, what's the RFC for IP via Mutant Cat Carriers?
Or is it simply an adaptation of RFC 1149?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
This reminds me that scene in Austin Powers where he first opens a laptop and tries to view a low quality, flickering video message, this after he was used to 2-way TV quality video calling from his car. That, on it's own hand reminds me it's been ages since I saw that movie and I should go watch it again now.
Ahh! I told you never to call me on this wall! This is an unlisted wall!
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I know a guy who was working on 60Mbps video over Internet2 about 5 years ago. All the tech is ready, it's simply a matter of bandwidth.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Actually I'd rather have video calling in airplanes than just normal voice calls.
As Mitch Hedberg once said: "sure, you can speak, just... use your hands".
More like too ubiquitous when you have an endpoint in your shower too...
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
The idea of the videophone almost predates science fiction: 1879 cartoon
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
The naked wrong number in Demolition Man.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Cartoonist George du Maurier beat that by about three decades in Punch magazine. The caption:
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
I can't beleive no one else has mentioned the commlocks fro Space 1999.
http://www.space1999.net/catacombs/main/cguide/umcomlock.html
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
Hilarious! Anyone else remember Dr. Bob: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Dr._Bob ?
sigfault (core dumped)
Compare the number of monitors turned in in your typical best buy to the number of monitors turned on in a typical cubical farm (if best buy is winning, it isn't by much). then consider the difference between a Best Buy Employee and a Desk Jockey. The Best Buy employee stands 3 feet away from a monitor that is turned on, and lifts PCs that are unplugged. A desk jockey sits a foot from a monitor that is turned on, stares directly into it most of the day, and does little heavy lifting. I would suspect that if monitors were the cause of Best Buy health problems, then they would have killed most of the people in my workplace by now.
Forget video conferencing. Nothing of note to share. But, one of the more useful things I've seen come about from communications is desktop sharing. Things like Webex and M$ Communicator that let me show my desktop to hundreds of other people. Now, I have the power to let everyone see that exact piece of code I was talking about without having to haul my laptop over to a projector and get everyone in a room.
"Now we can use Skype to call one another over the Internet and video call with mobile `phones, but the video quality is nowhere near the quality shown in the film 2001 or the aforementioned Transatlantic Tunnel film." have to disagree. roomate and former roomate work on music over web conference on mac books and the video quality is stellar. even when we conference from los angeles to isreal
Crystal balls, magic windows, etc.
100 years ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_124C_41%2B
Whoever wrote the headline for this article here on Slashdot seriously needs to learn to READ. There is zero discussion about "the history of the videophone in Sci-Fi" on that article. There is mention of the fact that Star Trek used video phone technology since its inception in 1966 (loosely quoting the article). That's it. Clearly someone wanted their posting here on /. to be read, but to flat out lie to have your posting read by Sci-Fi Geeks? That's a new low! Shame on you!