The Death of the Video-Phone, random question Options

[Naysayer]

So, in a lot of SR-fiction, we got the wonderful video-phone, because it's just so cool to watch the guy you're talking to suddenly turn into a dragon, or have a stone-cold yakuza-oyabun glare at you before terminating the connection without moving a muscle.
It worked, because everyones' idea of a vid-phone was this kinda 80s-ish actual piece of furniture. You could sit or stand in front of it and throw the occasional chair at the screen.
Now, in SR4, all telephones apparently have been replaced by tiny whatchamajinx the size of a matchbox that you can have sewn into the fabric of your panites.
Still, from what I've seen, the idea of a video-connection to your conversation-partner seems to permeate.
The question now is, how do people do it?
Must we expect everyone to walk around with a tiny webcam that they point at their mug when making a call, at army length, myspace-style?
Does everybody nowadays only talk to each others' fully 3d-rendered animated 32nd-Life-avatars?

Maybe you should think about that the next time you call up your fixer, and the GM tells you that "the disgruntled face of your fixer blinks into existence on your AR-display."

Probably, you shouldn't...

[blood_kite]

I'm sorry, I stopped reading once I got to the part about comm-panties. What was the question again?

Now to seriously answer your question. Consider that even the crappiest commlink with a sim module is capable of full VR immersion with a set of 'trodes or datajack, and that such a cheap commlink would probably still be capable of rendering a lifelike copy of yourself as an avatar if you so desire. If this is true then a commlink should have little problem using a digitally constructed picture of your head that at the very least can lipsynch what you say. With some basic voice-pattern recognition software it might be able to alter the expression on your avatar face as you talk, a DNI like via 'trodes or datajack would let you control the expression yourself.

The picture of you that the commlink project to other commlinks might not be the most hyperrealistic, but it could probably be as up-to-date as the last picture you took of yourself with the built-in camcorder. I bet teens would also enjoy the fact that this way you could edit out unsightly blemishes for comm calls.

As far as using an actual video feed of yourself, it would still be easy but not as ubiquitous. All you would need is 1 or more camcorders tied into your commlink. Easy enough to do for a home or office call, just place the camcorders and subscribe them to your commlink. Out on the street it would be a bit more difficult, you would either have to place camcorders around you or get permission to use the camcorders of commlinks around you. Your holo-vid/touchscreen display thingie might be capable of doing it if you could unroll it somewhere.

Your examples of video calls with the dragon and oyabun would probably be in places where they feel comfortable and have some cameras set up for the call. Plus, you could always throw a piece of furniture at the remote camcorder and you wouldn't be risking your expensive commlink.

I think video calls would still exist, just maybe not while you're walking down the street.

[eidolon]

I pretty much agree with what blood_kite said. I would add that if you wanted them to see you on vid while walking down the street and you didn't have a fly-spy dedicated to it, you could always wear the equiv of a SR3 wrist phone with flip screen, only it's just a little camera on your watch or whatever. Sure you'd be walking down the sidewalk with your arm out in front of you, but that's what people have been doing for years (SR world).

[coolgrafix]

Commlinks have a camera. There, I said it.

Next. =)

[hyzmarca]

[blood_kite]

[Buster]

Since most commlink users use simsense to control their commlink (see my commlink FAQ: http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?showtopic=18512), users will be seeing whatever you want based on what you mentally tell your commlink to project. So if you feel like looking like a gila monster wearing a sombrero that day, people will see that image when talking to you. Of course, they can filter data coming in whichever way they want too, so everyone could look like a topless WoW night elf on their end.

[Prime Mover]

I've always gone with idea of camera in commlink and the home terminal, wall screens, AR screens etc.. Can make for some larger then life versions of who your speaking too.

[Riley37]

But if I program my ASIST to make all the telemarketers appear on my image lenses as topless WoW night elves, then I'll be *more* inclined to buy junk from them. More likely, that's the avatar they choose to send, and it's up to me to replace that with a blank screen - or with a ghoul avatar so that my subconscious response supports my intentional wariness during the call.

Sending an actual camera image, cf. the Dick Tracy Two-Way Wrist TV, and sending a CGI image, are two different things, and perhaps a significant choice; and then there's the 2070 equivalents of Photoshop to disguise one as the other. (See also www.xkcd.com/331)

Hacking electronics is a useful method when hacking the metahuman mind. Perhaps there's an image-manipulation program that works like Kinesics, but only for onscreen communication! Even for voice-only contact, a sultry contralto or a gravelly tenor can get to "yes" better than a whine. How about software that duplicates Voice Control, a la Terminator voice mimicry?

[Tarantula]

[Kyoto Kid]

...I'd rather not... :grinbig:

...now if it were a headware implant that would be really annoying.

...you get ready to take the shot and your commlink signals an incoming call: - 4 to your DP for blurred vision due to your head vibrating.

[bibliophile20]

[Eryk the Red]

I run with the idea that some folks definitely do still use vidphones. In game terms, they are limited-function commlinks that incorporate a viewscreen and a camera, and are only designed to make commcalls, rather than being used for matrix access. Some of them may actually have the capacity for matrix browsing, though only the AR equivalent, with data popping up onscreen. Mostly, I like the idea of certain technologies, like phones, being visible. Commlinks are often not.

[Simon May]

Of course the video phone is dead. It's been replaced by the trideo phone.

And I'd like to point out that since most images are 3D holographic projections rather than photos, the camera on your comm-link is likely a trid camera, meaning that it can be used to sync a 3D rendering of you and your surrounding area (within a meter or two) in real time for trid phone use. It might only appear as 2-D on the other end depending on the type of screen being used (goggles, contacts, etc.), but it's still trid in functionality. Unless your runner is a traditional photography buff who equipped his comm-link with an outdated 2D camera for old times sake, I doubt anyone would have simple 2D imaging equipment.

[Eryk the Red]

it wouldn't be real 3D, of course. A single camera can't create complete 3D (it can't see the back of your head). But I could imagine a partial 3D render. An approximation designed to be seen only from certain angles. Which I guess is what trid is.

[Adarael]

Um. I've always used VR avatars in place of videophone displays?
But then, my NPCs tend to be paranoid.

[Simon May]

Just because you can have active trid doesn't mean you can't supersede it with well-rendered avatars.

[RobertB]