
Is video the future of voice?  - evo_9
http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/14/3009637/video-voice-volte
======
GuiA
In the vast majority of sci-fi movies, the main mode of remote communication
for humans is video based (last one I have in mind is Avatar, where the
characters left each other "video voicemails"). You can also find a lot of
speculations in the 1900's about how the future would have "videophones". So
there's definitely some basic human desire for that.

But that being said, we've had the technology for videophoning for a solid
decade now, and it never caught on as a default mode of communication. Is it
that the offering just wasn't good enough? Maybe.

But I also have a feeling that it's not really something we want except for
some certain cases (long distance relationships, talking with your young
children, for whom image is essential, etc.).

Videochatting is weird— you get some of the body language, but not all of it.
You lose on some subtlety of facial expressions because of screen
size+resolution, distance to the camera, lossy encoding, etc. You have to be
focused on the screen, you can't move around, sit down, get up, etc. like you
would in a normal conversation.

As a result, videochatting today is almost uncanny valley-like, and for most
cases, audio only largely suffices. I feel like until we have high-fidelity
life size holograms, visual telecommunications will never really catch on on a
wide scale.

