Prospects for video telephony

Noll overstates the case for the failure of video telephony. This paper reviews research on the use of video in business and at home. Improvements in algorithms, costs, standards and data transport are overcoming technological barriers. Recent field trials show sustained use of video phones and the emergence of novel applications that extend the medium beyond conventional interpersonal communication, including the use of video as data, to access multimedia services and to sustain organizational awareness. In residential settings the dominant use of video telephony is likely to be for routine social calls, for which video is especially suited.