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From: mortel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Stphane Lussier)
Newsgroups: alt.artcom
Subject: Re: Video Telephones
Message-ID: <mortel.00vd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 25 Apr 93 08:58:47 GMT
Organization: Mortels Feles
Lines: 90
X-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16f (10.17.92) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith
Malcolm Cowe writes:
> Dear all,
> I am currently involved in a project building a
>video-communications product (Real Time, naturally) and am looking for
>comments you may have about the whole business. Do we need video-cameras
>on out 'phones? Is it ethical (Think about it: sex shows, the extra
>invasion of privacy which goes beyond the harassment of the pervo 'phone
>call)? That said, what about the cool aspects? Watching cartoons when
>you're on hold, or showing off the new baby to Gran'ma and Gran'pa in
>Norway, or whatever.
>
I'm kinda used to the old telephone... speaking while looking inside my
head--and not someone else, learning to interpret the other person's
reactions by the tone in his/her voice or hesitation,...
But I guess it's the kind of thing you believe not so useful... until you
get used to it and someone takes it away from you. For example, I just
left my computer for one second, so to search for a translation of the word
"interlocuteur" in my french-english dictionary; couldn't find it [the
dictionary]; I then got back to my computer with the strange assumption
that there might exist some kind of a "grep dictionary reality" command!
Easy transfer of multimedia documents, while keeping, let's say, voice
contact with the other person at the end of the line seems more useful to
me than a <25% of the time superflous face. Although, for a business/group
meetings, for example, it could be useful to know what the strangers look
like or how they behave themselves.
Buffer 'phones/'phones with storage units would be nice. Memory costly,
but nice.
What's worrying me, thought, it's how once a technology is introduced and
very much used, how much we take it for granted and base our lifestyle on
it. Of course this has its up sides(be everywhere while at home), but up
to what point would our lives be governed by telephones? 24hrs schedules
of work--a call in the middle of the night from me at 9:00 AM EST (since
you are GMT, it's 4:00 AM). It could be fun to make up other pessimistic
little scenarios...
Question: Will there ever be a telephone community? What will it look like?
As for porno broadcasts, I really don't want to get into a debate except
that I'm sure that they would sunk to the lowest level possible.
As for watching TV through a 'phone, well maybe it would be nice if one
could order a TV show by 'phone call, and could view it on a regular TV or
VCR.
Video camera on out 'phones: It depends on the type of 'phone(...) Oh!
BTW, don't include a switch to turn ON/OFF the camera, use something
mechanical, like a tiny little door closing on the camera eye; one may want
to make sure that the camera doesn't see him/her.
Showing the baby...: An alienation of a social ritual.
Piracy: Imagine if one could transmit, let's say, pay TV broadcasts through
a (multiplexed?) videophone to a number of people. Of course, I don't know
about the bandwidth of the phone lines you will use, so maybe the image
quality of TV broadcasts won't be worth all the troubles.
PS: I think I saw a news broadcast a couple of years ago about a B/W
videophone system (from France?). The clip included an advanced
middle-aged woman teaching someone how to knit.
...I must admit that, some times, I would prefer to _show_ something
instead of describing it. One way to achieve transmission of explanative
visuals would be to transmit a fixed amount of frames n to the other
videophone. People at both end of the line could bring out and share any
of frame 1 <= i <= n with the possibility of making minor modifications
on each frame or moving around elements or pointers on each frame. Each
"terminal" could also access frame j or k without disturbing the shared
frame i. I guess what I'm saying is that an advanced user Very-Friendly
graphical interface would be more welcomed than a videophone. (user
friendlyness is vital, I believe, for large scale/public implementation;
about 5 years ago, a canadian minitel-like system called Alex didn't mesure
to expectations, suppositiveley just because it had a contemporary BBS
program interface--if you can drop the keyboard, then drop it!)
DISCLAIMER: I'm sorry if what I'm saying may seem superficial to you. I
just don't know exactly who I am talking to... I'm not a
professional on the matter--I just occasionally like to think
about what I necessarily don't know much about...
--
___________________________________mortel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Stephane Lussier /
__________________/ Montreal-nord (Quebec, Canada)
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From: mortel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Stphane Lussier)
Newsgroups: alt.artcom
Subject: Re: Video Telephones
Message-ID: <mortel.00vd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 25 Apr 93 08:58:47 GMT
Organization: Mortels Feles
Lines: 90
X-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16f (10.17.92) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith
Malcolm Cowe writes:
> Dear all,
> I am currently involved in a project building a
>video-communications product (Real Time, naturally) and am looking for
>comments you may have about the whole business. Do we need video-cameras
>on out 'phones? Is it ethical (Think about it: sex shows, the extra
>invasion of privacy which goes beyond the harassment of the pervo 'phone
>call)? That said, what about the cool aspects? Watching cartoons when
>you're on hold, or showing off the new baby to Gran'ma and Gran'pa in
>Norway, or whatever.
>
I'm kinda used to the old telephone... speaking while looking inside my
head--and not someone else, learning to interpret the other person's
reactions by the tone in his/her voice or hesitation,...
But I guess it's the kind of thing you believe not so useful... until you
get used to it and someone takes it away from you. For example, I just
left my computer for one second, so to search for a translation of the word
"interlocuteur" in my french-english dictionary; couldn't find it [the
dictionary]; I then got back to my computer with the strange assumption
that there might exist some kind of a "grep dictionary reality" command!
Easy transfer of multimedia documents, while keeping, let's say, voice
contact with the other person at the end of the line seems more useful to
me than a <25% of the time superflous face. Although, for a business/group
meetings, for example, it could be useful to know what the strangers look
like or how they behave themselves.
Buffer 'phones/'phones with storage units would be nice. Memory costly,
but nice.
What's worrying me, thought, it's how once a technology is introduced and
very much used, how much we take it for granted and base our lifestyle on
it. Of course this has its up sides(be everywhere while at home), but up
to what point would our lives be governed by telephones? 24hrs schedules
of work--a call in the middle of the night from me at 9:00 AM EST (since
you are GMT, it's 4:00 AM). It could be fun to make up other pessimistic
little scenarios...
Question: Will there ever be a telephone community? What will it look like?
As for porno broadcasts, I really don't want to get into a debate except
that I'm sure that they would sunk to the lowest level possible.
As for watching TV through a 'phone, well maybe it would be nice if one
could order a TV show by 'phone call, and could view it on a regular TV or
VCR.
Video camera on out 'phones: It depends on the type of 'phone(...) Oh!
BTW, don't include a switch to turn ON/OFF the camera, use something
mechanical, like a tiny little door closing on the camera eye; one may want
to make sure that the camera doesn't see him/her.
Showing the baby...: An alienation of a social ritual.
Piracy: Imagine if one could transmit, let's say, pay TV broadcasts through
a (multiplexed?) videophone to a number of people. Of course, I don't know
about the bandwidth of the phone lines you will use, so maybe the image
quality of TV broadcasts won't be worth all the troubles.
PS: I think I saw a news broadcast a couple of years ago about a B/W
videophone system (from France?). The clip included an advanced
middle-aged woman teaching someone how to knit.
...I must admit that, some times, I would prefer to _show_ something
instead of describing it. One way to achieve transmission of explanative
visuals would be to transmit a fixed amount of frames n to the other
videophone. People at both end of the line could bring out and share any
of frame 1 <= i <= n with the possibility of making minor modifications
on each frame or moving around elements or pointers on each frame. Each
"terminal" could also access frame j or k without disturbing the shared
frame i. I guess what I'm saying is that an advanced user Very-Friendly
graphical interface would be more welcomed than a videophone. (user
friendlyness is vital, I believe, for large scale/public implementation;
about 5 years ago, a canadian minitel-like system called Alex didn't mesure
to expectations, suppositiveley just because it had a contemporary BBS
program interface--if you can drop the keyboard, then drop it!)
DISCLAIMER: I'm sorry if what I'm saying may seem superficial to you. I
just don't know exactly who I am talking to... I'm not a
professional on the matter--I just occasionally like to think
about what I necessarily don't know much about...
--
___________________________________mortel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Stephane Lussier /
__________________/ Montreal-nord (Quebec, Canada)