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A latest technological advancement in communication is the videophone, a telephone which incorporates video transmission in its function. Not only can you hear the person you are calling; you can also see them, and vice versa.
Videophones are especially ideal for individuals who are deaf and speech-impaired, as they can use them with sign language. There are also video relay services employed to communicate with hearing persons who are not conversant in sign language. Video relay services involve a third party, a sign language interpreter, who uses a conventional telephone at the same time to communicate with the deaf person's party.
Videophones have made telemedicine possible. This is where patients who are in remote locations can receive diagnostic and consultative services from their doctors through videophone calls.
The concept behind videophones has been in existence for several decades, but various challenges have kept them from hitting the market pervasively. Challenges included inadequate and expensive technology and lack of universality. Videophone technology requires the use of high-speed lines. However, during its introduction into the market, it was limited to the usual phone lines with their limited bandwidth. This rendered the videophone experience unpleasant due to jumps in the picture and line noises.
Videophones also failed to gain popularity in their initial stages because early users would find themselves without anyone to interface with. A videophone could easily cost five to ten times more than normal wireless phones, amounts that most other consumers were unwilling to part with.
However, some of the principles of videophone technology have been adapted by users in the form of webcam video calls (using personal computers, with inexpensive webcams, microphones and free video calling web client programs).
With the advent of faster, more efficient internet speeds, videophone technology is making a comeback into the market. A more popular use of videophone technology is corporate teleconferencing. This is where live meetings are held by several individuals of a firm, but who are in different locations. This has saved corporations a lot of travel, money and time.
Although videophones themselves have not caught on, the technology behind them has improved the lives of many. Families with their members separated by distance are now able to see each other regularly through webcam and internet services. Communication in international business firms is as swift as walking into the next office. If this is not proof enough of the imaginable being possible, then what is?
Videophone, Communication, Calls, Technology