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Wait, the Bell Picturephone was real! https://ethw.org/Picturephone https://ethw.org/Picturephone I had known for years that my grandpa Alistair Ritchie worked
by sritchie 4y ago
Wait, the Bell Picturephone was real! https://ethw.org/Picturephone https://ethw.org/Picturephone I had known for years that my grandpa Alistair Ritchie worked on this at the Labs, but the book “The Idea Factory” colored in the story with great detail on how advanced the system was AND how few units they ever sold. Everyone wanted to see the other party, but no one wanted to be broadcast. One Bell exec iirc planted a headshot of himself in front of the camera.
- LeoPanthera 4y agoYes! You can watch the first public demo here: https://youtu.be/BQMnlKMFD8M https://youtu.be/BQMnlKMFD8M It required four (I think?) copper pairs to each handset, one for the audio and three for the video. And it was expensive. Not a huge surprise it didn't catch on. Mostly I was just joking that it's disappointing there isn't a video payphone in space. ;)