Desktop video conferencing: technical advances and evaluation issues

Abstract Videophones have existed since the early 1960s and, despite capturing public attention, have met with very limited commercial success. Today there is a resurgence of interest in video communication, due largely to the emerging ‘multimedia’ marketplace. But have things really c changed, or is the videophone still the proverbial solution looking for a problem? This paper covers some of the recent advances in network and video communications, and looks at the likely implications for collaborative systems. Desktop video conferencing epitomizes the integration of computer and communications. However, although there have been many technical advances in both network and video communications, little is understood about the non-technical issues involved in the limited impact of the current generation of video conferencing. This paper concludes that the major issues in the successful development of desktop video conferencing systems will be the design of multi-user interfaces and the effective evaluation of such systems.

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