Today, with most of us following social distancing norms amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, video calls are the best way to interact and talk with our loved ones.?
Most of us are making the most of video conferencing apps like Zoom, Google Meet and so many others to talk and stay connected in times where connecting physically can be dangerous.?
Some are using this for casual communication whereas some are using it for work, many are even using the technology for studies. It has surely been a boon to us. However, did you know, the first-ever video call took place 50-years ago, today?
No, I¡¯m not talking about video calling on an app as we do right now. Exactly 50 years ago on July 1st 1970, a revolutionary phone call took place between Pittsburgh mayor Peter Flaherty and Alcoa CEO John Harper on a device that was called Picturephone Mod II.
In that era, it was called as a videophone and this phone call was the first commercial video-calling device that could be owned by someone, meaning, that the Picturephone could be installed at your home or office.
You can see the video of the mayor and Alcoa CEO¡¯s conversation at the time, with people cheering and applauding the revolutionary way of making calls. In the 1970s 38 such phones were installed in 8 companies in Pittsburgh.
Picturephone Mod II was a small and futuristic looking device in a cube-like shape, featuring a 5.5-inch black and white CRT display with a 250-line resolution as well as a refresh rate of 30 interlaced frames per second.
The camera atop the unit wasn¡¯t the best but it got the job done. The resolution was roughly similar to a 0.8-megapixel camera seen today. The device also had an ability to screen-share, sort-of. It had a mirror which could be flipped to show documents on the desks.?
Using the feature was surely not cheap. AT&T charged people $160 a month to use it which when compared today is similar to $1,092 (approximately Rs 77,000) and you¡¯d get 30 minutes of call time.
AT&T had believed that by 1975, over 100,000 will go live on its network, but due to its expensive nature, it didn¡¯t quite catch on and only 450 mods were in use till 1973. The company spent nearly half a billion dollars developing the technology and didn¡¯t give up, bringing different iterations with better features, until finally giving up in the 90s.
Regardless, it is an iconic feat that cannot really be ignored. To celebrate this, on the 50th anniversary, the current Pittsburgh mayor William Peduto and Alcoa chairman Michael G. Morris conducted a video call today. Carnegie Mellon University has a couple of Mod II¡¯s that it has upgraded to support current video-conferencing technologies.?
Check out the first commercial video call below: