Video Conferencing

Why hasn't video comferencing caught on? Internet telephony is on its way, (thanks to Skype) but what about video messaging? Maybe we're just not ready for it, but a thought came to me today, and it was about the whole video-conferencing interface.

The interface is too much like a telephone, and not enough like actual face-to-face conversation. I'm also still distracted by other things on my computer screen, and in that way I am treating it like a phone call. I mean, I would never try multi-tasking during an actual conversation, right? Maybe it's because most video conference calls have this strange phenomenon where the person you're talking to isn't looking at his/her camera. Maybe if there were a way to make the call more personable, it would catch on more.

I was brainstorming with Bryan today, and I thought that a good way would be to have four cameras at different places around the computer monitor, and then to triangulate a straight-on view to portray to the user on the other end of the call. The user would then be able to look at the screen, and see a caller looking straight back at him.

Of course the technology is probably not there yet, especially in home machines, but maybe one day...