Well, that's only partly correct. It adds little to the value of communication if the quality is bad, but in most cases it has been proven that visual cues are a significant back channel of human communication.
I believe the second scenario (broadcasting what you see) is actually now implemented in most 3G mobiles, i.e. you can switch between the fron-facing & the back-facing camera. I'm sure of course that the option is deeply hidden in some menu ;-) Another thing I forgot to mention is that there is little support for the "negotiation phase". If you look at things like Skype, you can negotiate in advance via IM if you want to do a video call and each party can enable or disable their video feed independently during the call. Also, you can elect to show if you have a camera (& thus can do video calls). On a mobile, you can't be sure if the other party is capable or willing to engage in a video call, and I'm not sure if there's a seamless way to hand over between video & voice-only calls. Cheers, Alex On Fri, May 30, 2008 at 5:46 PM, Nancy Broden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Add to these the fact that simply seeing the other person on the other end > of the line adds very little to the communication. Now, if I were to see > what you see, instead of just seeing you.... > > On May 30, 2008, at 9:34 AM, Peyush Agarwal wrote: > >> Alexander, >> I'm not sure I agree with the notion of 'greedy interface' as the problem. >> I mean, it's the whole point when you do video calls, no? >> >> I think rather that there are 3 general issues with video phoning - >> 1. Technology - they are bandwidth heavy, and unreliable in terms of >> quality. Sometimes it's good other times choppy etc. It has to work like tv >> all the time from any location. Sort of how audio phoning works. >> 2. Logistics - maybe this is also technological, but it's too much hassle >> to sit in the right place, have the right lighting etc. to make it >> worthwhile. I remember when I first used webcams (low res, choppy etc.) the >> excitement of seeing someone from another part of the world was quickly >> overcome by constantly wanting to 'place' them such that I could be 'eye to >> eye' with them, and be able to see their face properly etc. Typically, >> lights behind the person that work fine as local ambient light are terrible >> for the person on the other end of the call - all they see is a silhouette. >> 3. Privacy - I think it would be just terrible if you HAD to use >> videoconferencing - I don't have to pat down my cowlick in order to speak >> over the phone today, or put on a tie etc. >> > > -------------------------------- > Nancy Broden > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
