Growing up, one of my favorite Saturday morning cartons was the Jetsons. This program had a very interesting vision of the future. There were flying cars, robots that cook, clean and keep us company and I'll never forget George Jetson discussing dinner plans with his wife Jane over a video communications device. Well, parts of that vision of the future are today's reality. I don't know about you but I don't think most automobile drivers are ready to drive flying cars, but being able to communicate using video is something that's well past due.
The video connections have been around for sometime on the personal computer, through the use of applications such as SKYPE and MSN Messenger. Although the quality of the video has not been the best, it is jittery and pixilated. This is mainly due to the fact that these services are primarily free and thus used by a large portion of the video and audio marketplace.
Recently there has been some progress with video technology; this is mainly due to the advent of VOIP technology. VOIP, which stands for voice over internet protocol, allows the device to communicate voice and data over the technology which powers the internet Now as the speeds that are offered by internet providers have increased from dial-up to broadband, so has the development of digital devices that can connect without having to have a computer to host the connection. Now users don't have to be connected to their computer to make and receive phone calls.
The next logical step is to create digital devices that can not only send and receive voice signals, but can also add video signals to the mix. These types of devices have been quite common in corporate networks that utilize secure high-speed networks to accomplish high quality video teleconferencing, although the high cost of the equipment made them a luxury item at best. Recently the demand for high quality video communication for the home has increased and a few companies answered the call. They have started to develop and market various types of solutions.
The cost-effective, easy to use and a high quality video phone is now a reality. Even the most non technically savvy of us can easy and quickly learn to use today video phones, so they can be used by grandparents, parents and even children without having to be concerned that they will be intimidated by the technology. This is guaranteed since most of these new video phone devices work just like the traditional phones that Ma Bell has been providing for years, with an added bonus of providing a video feed. A few devices even completely replace the existing traditional phones, allowing you to call other video phone, traditional landlines both local and long-distance and cellular phones for a fixed monthly charge.
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