It has been suggested that Visiophone be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

The Picturephone from Pee-Wee's Playhouse.

A videophone is a telephone which is capable of both audio and video duplex transmission. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... Visual perception is one of the senses, consisting of the ability to detect light and interpret (see) it as the perception known as eyesight, sight or naked eye vision. ... Image File history File links Capture02. ... Image File history File links Capture02. ... Pee-wees Playhouse was a childrens television program starring Pee-wee Herman (played by Paul Reubens) that aired on Saturday mornings on CBS. The show originally ran from September 13, 1986 to July 27, 1991, and was enormously popular with both children and adults. ... An old rotary telephone This article is about telephone technology. ... A schematic representation of hearing. ... Video is the technology of capturing, recording, processing, transmitting, and reconstructing moving pictures, typically using celluloid film, electronic signals, or digital media, primarily for viewing on television or computer monitors. ... In telecommunications, duplex means two-way when referring to communications channels. ...

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, and the first consumer videophone was developed by Motorola. AT&T sold standalone "Videophone™" brand consoles to the general public in the early 1990's with prices starting at $1499.99. [1] AT&T Inc. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... Toshiba Corporations headquarters in Hamamatsucho, Tokyo Toshiba Corporation sales by division for year ending March, 31 2005 Toshiba Corporation ) (TYO: 6502 ) is a Japanese high technology electrical and electronics manufacturing firm, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. ... Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is an American international communications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. ... ISO 4217 Code USD User(s) the United States, the British Virgin Islands, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Panama, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the insular areas of the United States Inflation 3. ...

Videotelephony is mostly used in large corporate conferencing setups, and is supported by systems such as Cisco CallManager. Other companies such as Tandberg, Radvision, and Polycom also offer similar solutions. Videoconferencing previously was limited to the H.323 protocol (notably Cisco's SCCP implementation was an exception), however recently a shift towards SIP videophones has occurred. In accordance with the adoption of SIP telephony for home users, videotelephony is also slowly becoming available to home users from a number of hardware and software providers. Closed solutions such as Skype also now provide video. CallManager is a Cisco product. ... Tandberg is a manufacturer of videoconferencing systems, located in Oslo, Norway (product development + sales, distribution) and New York City, USA (sales, distribution). ... Radvision Ltd. ... Polycom is a company noted for making expensive teleconferencing and videoconferencing equipment. ... A videoconference (also known as a videoteleconference) is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously. ... H.323 is an umbrella recommendation from the ITU-T, that defines the protocols to provide audio-visual communication sessions on any packet network. ... SCCP is a proprietary VoIP terminal control protocol originally developed by Selius Corporation. ... Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a protocol developed by IETF MMUSIC Working Group and proposed standard for initiating, modifying, and terminating an interactive user session that involves multimedia elements such as video, voice, instant messaging, online games, and virtual reality. ... Skype (IPA pronunciation: , i. ...

Another protocol used by videophones is H.324. Videophones that work on regular phone lines typically use H.324, but the bandwidth is limited by the modem to around 33Kbps, limiting the video quality and framerate. A slightly modified version of H.324 called 3G-324M defined by 3GPP is also used by some cellphones that allow video calls, typically for use only in UMTS networks. H.324 is an ITU-T recomendation for voice, video and data transmission over regular analog phone lines. ... 3G-324M is the 3GPP umbrella protocol for video telephony in 3GPP mobile networks. ... The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration agreement that was established in December 1998. ... Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the third-generation (3G) mobile phone technologies. ...

Today the principles, if not the precise mechanisms of a videophone are employed by many users world-wide in the form of webcam conferences using personal computers with cheaply available webcams and microphones. A videophone can be created by using an old or inexpensive computer and dedicating it to run a video softphone. A Creative webcam A web camera (or webcam) is a real-time camera whose images can be accessed using the World Wide Web, instant messaging, or a PC video calling application. ... In computing, a soft phone is software that simulates a real phone and runs on a general purpose computer, rather than a dedicated device. ...

In 2004 Telmex, the biggest telephone service provider in Mexico, introduced Videophone service over regular phone lines (apparently H.324). The service, as of March 2006, had not enjoyed widespread adoption. Telecom Italia supplies LG-Nortel videophones, which also appear to be used by Telmex.

In 2006 ACN Inc., a large direct sales telecommunications services provider, added Wooksung videophones to their product line. ACN Inc. ...

Trivia

• In many science fiction movies and shows that take place in the future, videophones are used as a primary method of communication. Examples of videophones include the Picturephone from Pee-wee's Playhouse and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• 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.
• AT&T Videophone™ prototypes are visible in the movie Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as... Pee-wees Playhouse was a childrens television program starring Pee-wee Herman (played by Paul Reubens) that aired on Saturday mornings on CBS. The show originally ran from September 13, 1986 to July 27, 1991, and was enormously popular with both children and adults. ... Dick Tracy is a comic strip detective and a popular character in American pop culture. ... Prototypes or prototypical instances combine the most representative attributes of a category. ...

See also

• camera phone
• IP Multimedia Subsystem
• Information appliance
• Skype
• Smartphone
• videoconferencing

A camera phone in use Philippe Kahn, Inventor of the camera phone A camera phone is a mobile phone which has a camera built in. ... The IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) is a standardised Next Generation Networking (NGN) architecture for telecom operators that want to provide mobile and fixed multimedia services. ... An information appliance (IA) is any device that can process information, signals, graphics, animation, video and audio; and can exchange such information with another IA device. ... Skype (IPA pronunciation: , i. ... A smartphone is any electronic handheld device that integrates the functionality of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or other information appliance. ... A videoconference (also known as a videoteleconference) is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously. ...

External links

• Mobile video players and converters

Dedicated videophones

• Worldgate Ojo
• Wooksung
• Grandstream
• Leadtek
• LG-Nortel
• InnoPhone

Softclient videophones

• AIM Phoneline
• WigiWigi
• Kapanga Softphone SIP client for telecom applications