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Now from teleresence we go to telephones of the future and Desmond Crisis is here with yet another toy. What is this thing? This is the Philips P100 screen phone and you can lift it up and get dial tone. But that's not all. It also it has more many quick keys. You can load it up with all of your friends and family and push buttons. But also if you don't know the numbers that you want to call, you can log in to the paperless database. has a modem and basically a little tiny computer in there and you can retrieve a lot of information like phone numbers anywhere in the country or some driver's
information, things like that. What about the screen here? It says read mail. That's right. It will send and receive email and also can be set up so that while you're away, it will dial and check your email for you. Spend the downloading time and you get a little blinking light just like your answering machine. That's cool. How about this? This is like a credit card I stick in to log on. Yes. It's got some expansion slots. One's for memory and this one is for a smart card reader. So, the potential exists that you can log into your bank and get some money out of your account onto one of these cash cards. When can I buy this? Is it in stores?
Well, it's not quite in stores just yet. It's being tested in New Jersey, but soon will be available in the rest of the country. Can it dial 976 numbers? There's only one way to find out. Let's dial it. First up today, the recent frenzy in the world of video telephones. You know, the first telephone to use a camera was demonstrated in 1939. Yet, it wasn't until 53 years later that we got our first consumer version with a color image from AT&T. Even then, it didn't sell too well until somebody realized maybe instead of putting the camera on a phone, we ought to put it on a computer.
That changed everything. Now, the business of video conferencing is booming. Technicians make lastminute adjustments for the world's first demonstration of the telephone of tomorrow. At the picture phone was one of the crowning achievements of late50s technology. It mixed high-tech wizardry with a simple household appliance, the telephone. There he is, almost as big as life on the 10-in video screen. But the picture phone never lived up to its promise. To actually place a video call in the late60s, the equipment size was enormous, and the costs were in the hundreds of thousands and into the millions of dollars. So, until the price comes down, the video phone remains the phone of the future. See you then. Good looking.
But hold on. Don't put away that mirror and comb yet. The video phone has been revived. You look marvelous. Which one of us is better looking? Bypassing the telephone and the TV. Today's communications gurus are taking advantage of the fastest growing home appliance since either of those, your computer. We'll have people at home making a video call just like they would pick up the phone to call grandma. They'll now dial her and use the video phone.
Okay, Richard, I'd like to introduce you to my daughters. This is Nikki. Hold on. Don't squish me. Desktop video teleconferencing uses the same technology that business and government have employed to conduct remote meetings and conferences for years. But instead of using huge room systems with large cameras and cumbersome audio equipment, the desktop version uses your own personal computer. I'm a journalist and independent consultant. We talked to Christine Pereé from her home south of Sacramento, California.
Christine is a telecomuter. She works in the computer industry while maintaining an office in her mountain home. Just glance outside and see there's deer walking by. That's absolutely fabulous. I would like to work in a professional team. I can't do that because I've chosen a lifestyle that is remote from any corporate team I can imagine wanting to be a part of. We need to get some measurements of network impact. Christine's link to the corporate world sits on her desk. network. The components of this system are a pentium, a monitor and a camera which allows me to focus um at any distance.
On the screen, we can see the window that manages the applications. The applications include video, telephone, sharing conferencing or a directory where I can enter and delete entries. Desktop teleconferencing uses either specially installed digital phone lines called ISDN lines or POTS lines. POTS stands for plain old telephone system. An ISDN line costs about $100 to install and about $25 to maintain monthly. There's a level of trust that we build when we hear one another talk and see the breast of the body language. the digital handshake.
Pere says there's something very important about face-toface conversations, but there are disadvantages as well. Well, what I found in video conferencing is that you can't run and you can't hide. If you're having a bad hair day, everybody will know. Okay. A lot of people don't want to be on camera, don't want to be seen, you know, uh the facial expressions and because on a phone call, you don't know what gestures are being made, but on video, you see everything. Chatting face to face is all well and good, but is there anything else you can do with this technology? You should see a map of Los Angeles on your screen now.
Lorie Wel from Intel showed us how her company's desktop teleconferencing system works. It's called ProShare. Information to be sent over the line. Sharing is what this system does best. From her office and my office in different parts of the state, Lori and I worked off the same documents. First, a map of Los Angeles. Say, for example, you were interested in a piece of property. What I can do is use a pen tool and draw a circle around that or square in this case.
You want to try it? You mean that I can draw a circle around it from here? Absolutely. We also viewed a videape through her window. So, what we're going to see here is a video created uh to explain a debugging a problem with a truck and its tires. We have a number of customers who are interested in doing this on aircraft any uh area where the engineers are in one place and the problem may be in a different place and they can save a lot of time and uh travel expenses. The technology isn't quite there yet. Even using the high-priced systems with ISDN lines, the picture is still shaky and grainy. But if you're ready to answer that phone face first, then here's what you'll need. This ProShare system costs just under $1,000,
including hardware, software, and camera, and it runs only on ISDN lines. The AT&T Vistium video conference systems start at about $2,800 and also only run on ISDN lines. Picture also offers two desktop systems that start at $2,500, again, using only ISDN. Shervision costs about $1,600, but it only runs on POTS lines. Unlike the other systems we've shown you, ShareVision works on both Mac and PC. The newly released Apple QuickTime video conference system costs $1,750. It can run only on ISDN phone lines. Frame rates are also important. The video that you see on television runs at 30 frames per second. This picture tell system as well as ProShare, Vistium, and ShareVision run about half that speed,
which is why the picture still looks choppy. The cheaper systems run even slower and sometimes can resemble a slideshow. If the technology isn't there today, that's okay cuz there's nobody for me to call. If we're not there today, May 1995, December 1995, check back with me. It's been nice talking to you, Richard. Take care. You know, there's a way you could do video conferencing at no cost at all if you already own a camcorder and have access to the internet. That's how we're seeing Gina right now. Hi, Gina. Hi, everybody. Wave at all the nice people. She is so photogenic. The program is called See Me. You can download it from many different sites on the internet and other online services. It works on both
Windows and the Mac platforms, and it uses the internet to send images. It's from Cornell University, and it's freeware. Okay, it doesn't do color. The image moves slowly, but you can't beat the price. Right, Gina? Right. Straight ahead on CNET Central, we got the latest in CDROMs with John Cavorak and Hollywood goes interactive on the internet.
