Video phones finding niche after 40 years in development
by Al Moyers
Air Force Communications Agency Office of History  
(_http://infosphere.safb.af.mil/~rmip/97dec/intercom.htm_)

The Air Force is testing video telephones at locations both in the United  
States and overseas to provide "video morale calls" for deployed members.

"I have never seen a better morale booster," was the report of one Air Force  
first sergeant during a recent test of video telephone technology at  
Incirlik AB, Turkey.

The video phone concept is actually more than four decades old, but new  
low-cost technologies are providing the Air Force a rare opportunity to  
permit families and deployed airmen to be able to see, as well as talk, to  
one another.

The idea behind the video telephone system presently being examined by the  
Air Force was succinctly stated in the 1960s print advertisement of Western  
Electric-"crossing a telephone with a TV set." The Western Electric  
advertisement showed the less-than-successful Picturephone system which it  
produced in cooperation with AT&T's Bell Laboratories.

Years before, engineers at Bell Laboratories began discussing the concept of  
simultaneous transmission of video and voice over telephone lines in the  
1920s.

In 1927, the Bell Telephone System sent live television images of Herbert  
Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce, over telephone lines from Washington,  
D.C. to an auditorium in Manhattan, N.Y. This was the first public  
demonstration in the United States of long-distance video transmission.

The first "Picturephone" was completed by Bell Laboratory engineers in 1956.  
This first system was crude and cumbersome and required three standard wire  
pairs to operate: one pair to carry the video transmission, one pair to carry  
video reception, and the third to carry the audio signal. Requiring  
1,000,000 Hertz of bandwidth, the Picturephone video signal exceeded by more  
than 300 times the bandwidth allotted to a typical telephone voice signal.

By 1964, a somewhat improved version of the Picturephone, dubbed the "Mod  
1," had been developed and was debuted at the New York World's Fair. To test  
public reaction to the Picturephone, visitors were invited to place calls  
between special exhibits of the Picturephone at the World's Fair and  
Disneyland.

Survey results indicated that most people did not like Picturephone. The  
controls were awkward and the picture was small. Moreover, most people were  
not comfortable with the idea of being seen during a phone conversation.

However, the system's developers at Bell Laboratories were convinced that  
Picturephone was viable and could find a market. AT&T inaugurated commercial  
Picturephone service between New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.,  
June 24, 1964, with a call from Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon  
Johnson, in Washington; to Dr. Elizabeth A. Wood of Bell Laboratories in New  
York City.

A three-minute Picturephone call from Washington to New York City cost $16.  
The most expensive connection, between New York City and Chicago, cost $27  
for three minutes. This inaugural Picturephone service never caught the  
attention of consumers.

AT&T continued to believe in the viability of Picturephone. With the  
beginning of commercial Picturephone service in Pittsburgh in 1970, AT&T  
executives predicted that Picturephones would be in use in more than a  
million settings by 1980. Their estimates were far off the mark. Consumers  
were still not ready for Picturephone, finding it too big, too expensive,  
and, for many, too intrusive.

In January 1992, AT&T executives again predicted the success of a videophone  
system with the introduction of the AT&T VideoPhone 2500-the first  
full-color, home video phone system to use standard home telephone lines.

During the system's debut, Robert Kavner, AT&T group executive for AT&T  
Communications Products, said, "This is the way people want to communicate.  
The time is right. The price is right. The technology is right."

AT&T executives reported that the video phone would become as popular as  
cordless and cellular phones. Yet, a large market has yet to be found.

According to the calculations of telecommunications author Stephen J.  
Maudsley, the great decrease in the cost of video telephones is due to the  
continued development of silicon technology. Maudsley reports the cost of a  
video telephone in the 1960s was nearly $500,000. The AT&T VideoPhone 2500  
was introduced in 1992 at a cost of approximately $1500 and within a year was  
selling for less than $1000. The video telephone system being tested by the  
Air Force sells for about $500 for each unit. This dramatic increase in  
savings, according to Maudsley, comes from two areas-the integration of  
functions and the compression of images-associated with the continued  
decrease in the size of electronic devices.

The functions required for video phone operation have been integrated onto  
fewer pieces of silicon. This is a direct result of the decrease in the size  
of component transistors. During the early period of video telephone  
development, the smallest feature on a silicon chip was about 10 microns.  
Currently, silicon chips are being manufactured with features as small as .3  
microns.

Video compression ratios have also improved to increase the rate of image  
transmission from Picturephone's one frame every two seconds to the present  
state-of-the-art 20 frames per second. By comparison, broadcast television  
transmits at 30 frames per second.

Now, video telephones have taken two distinct venues. Seemingly, the larger  
share of the industry was concentrating its efforts in personal  
computer-based systems, or desktop video teleconferencing technology, which  
requires computer networks. The smaller effort was aimed at the video  
phone-through-your-television market which requires no more than a  
television, a video telephone, and POTS, the industry acronym for plain old  
telephone service.

The Air Force is testing the latter. According to Col. David L. Rakestraw,  
director of technology at the Air Force Communications Agency, "because they  
are so easy to set up and use, video phones are an excellent way for the Air  
Force to add a video dimension to phone calls home."

Moreover, the television-based systems cost no more for line transmission  
than a standard voice call.

Whether consumers on a large scale will finally be attracted to video  
telephone technology remains to be seen. The technology does seem to have  
found a niche among those Air Force members who have taken part in the Air  
Force trials.

After seeing and speaking to his wife in Hawaii from his deployed location  
in Turkey, SSgt. Lionel Price remarked, "I have been blessed to take part in  
this."