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The Videophone @ Home?

Desktop Video Telephony and Internet Broadband services (128kbps DSL lines and faster ones) are available aplenty. Would this be sufficient reason to bring your Videophone home? Here's what I believe is essential for the Videophone to make it to a desk at my home.

Basic Function

  • The phone should work with my DSL modem seamlessly and come pre-configured for my Internet service provider. At most I should have to enter to my username and password to access the Internet.
  • The phone should work with a specialized phone directory on the web where everyone I can conference with can be connected. I should be able to add my personal addressbook contacts who have Voice or Video connections to that website (no typing on the phone) and directly use a listing. The phone must not lock me down to that directory or addressbook service. There must be clearly available alternatives.
  • The phone should help me reach emergency services if required with the least number of key presses possible. Almost no phone has a feature to reach emergency services and that is a big bother.
  • The phone should work in whatever lighting condition exists in my home. I should not have to setup special lighting or backgrounds for the phone. That would become a hidden expense I will be unprepared for.
  • If I already have a switch or a hub and a small network sharing setup at home, I should be able to use the Videophone on that setup without any special configuration.
  • The voice quality must be crystal clear and much better than a normal POTS phone. Further, I should be able to tune the quality better by increasing the Digital Fidelity (16KHz - 48KHz.)

Pay only for what I use or need

  • The phone should allow me to use only the features I want. I may not want to conference with multiple people, I just want to call one person at a time. I may want to upgrade my service plan in the future.
  • I should be able to buy applications like Video Players, Music Players and Picture Slide shows. Conferencing and other features should also be available as optional add-ons. The phone can have an add-on alarm clock that I can download through my service provider. I don't want to pay for such applications when I am just looking for pure phone functionality.
  • The phone advertises features such as VLAN. I have only one PC and no LAN at home. I am not prepared to pay for features I don't understand and don't need at all.
  • I want a battery and Wireless feature as optional accessories I can buy for usage later. First I want to experience the videophone with a direct DSL connection.

Ease of Use and Access

  • I want everyone at home to be able to use the phone with ease, when I lift up the phone I should get a list of contacts I can dial, not a number pad to dial some complex Internet numbers. I should have a speed dial option that shows photographs of the contact.
  • I would like to have the least number of keys possible and a touchpad or  a touchscreen to quickly operate the phone.
  • I would like to talk to some of my friends and relatives who have PC and Yahoo Video Chat or MSN Live Video Chat or Skype. I should not be tied to the service provider directory that I expect as a minimum in my phone. These additional features can be something I must be able to subscribe to. I may not want to call all my relatives every month. 

Value Added Services

  • I want to view some YouTube videos on my phone as it can play video and voice quite well and has a personal screen.
  • I want to watch some photos on Flickr or Picasa or some specialised photo service. I would like to set one of the albums to be my default screensaver to make it look like a photo frame.
  • The phone should have aesthetic looks that fits the ambience of my house. I don't want a black bulky box.
  • I want a screen like in DishTV or TataIndicom which advertises new features that I can easily subscribe to if I need them. I don't want to receive letters and I don't prefer receiving marketing email on my personal mail address.
  • I want to access social networking sites like Orkut or Facebook from my phone. I don't want to any special web-browsing, just some social networking, so that I can add some video messages or pictures. I want to stay in touch with my friends without having to switch on a PC, connect to the internet and then start interacting.
  • As a PC user, I download files from the Internet. As Internet bandwidth is charged less during the night I would like to download, but I don't want to keep my PC on all night. Can I use my videophone to download files? This will be a very useful feature!
  • I want to connect my Camera to my Videophone and transmit some photos from the camera in a Video call. This would be very good when I am talking to my relatives and family members.
  • I would also like to play some video clips from my Digital Camera over a video call. This will be really nice in keeping in touch.

Cost Saving Add-on Features

  • I have a bluetooth headset that I use with my mobile phone. Can I use this with my videophone, this way I don't need to be always in front unless I am on a video call.
  • If my Videophone is already connected to the Internet I want to directly connect my PC to the Videophone and start using it. I don't want to key in my DSL password both on my phone and my PC. This must be an optional feature, but not a necessary one.
  • I should be able to turn on or turn off video to save bandwidth during a call. I may not need to have video transmitted through the entire call. At that time I'd like the person I called to see recent picture slideshow of the call I made with minimum or no bandwidth spend from my side.
  • I don't want my friend whom I have called to see a black screen when I want to stop transmission of live video (or add video privacy.) This time too, a slideshow of a recent call with my friend should be shown on his/her screen with minimum or no use of bandwidth.
  • When my videophone is idle, I would like it to show the time and an optional photo show without spending lot of electricity.
  • When I am looking at call history, I should also be seeing the bandwidth utilized with the total bandwidth used for the month for the videophone. This way I will know how much I am really using the phone and whether I am exceeding any bandwidth limit because I will have to pay extra to my ISP.
  • I should not have to buy an additional Ethernet Hub or equipment to connect both my PC and my Videophone to the Internet. I want to avoid extra expenses.
  • I want to store some Music Videos and Music on my Videophone and play them without needing any special accessory.

Security

  • I want some security features where I can lock the phone when I am going for long holidays. This must not require some long password or number that I have to remember. As it is, I already have so many numbers and passwords to keep in mind.
  • I would like some conversations to be "scrambled" or "highly secure" and do not want any possibility that it can be intercepted or recorded in any way. I am willing to sacrifice extra cost or bandwidth for this feature.
  • As the Videophone would remain on a desk at some location, I would like the option of using it like a security camera while it is not in call.

Mobility

  • I want to be able to keep my videophone anywhere in the house, not near my DSL connection. If I can do this with a simple add on on the videophone which connects some wireless antenna to my DSL line and lets me keep the Videophone (powered on normal electric power) elsewere in the house, it would be very convenient.
  • Sometimes I may want to connect my Videophone to a Television. But I want this as an optional accessory I can buy. I don't want the videophone to give "Television connector" and make me pay for it.

There's lots more that Videophone designers can think of and add to the device to improve the user experience. A videophone should have more features than a mobile phone available in the market at the same price. Otherwise the price vs features matrix for the phone falls flat with no motivation for anyone to invest in it.

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Comments

Hi Sunil,
This video phone that you describe seems too feature rich and i know my mom won't be able to use it ...:)

I suggest we concentrate on simple things that are transparent to the user like how do i store address's in the video phone using a limited keypad ... we can't have a QWERTY keyboard or something like the backberry ...

Too much featuritis ...

However one feature i like to see is the home video phone powered by the telephone line which could make it a really powerful system ... as power cuts are frequent and the telephone exchange DC 48V line usually does not go out ...

Cheers
Deepak

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