Technology has advanced extremely in these past 20 years - creation of the internet, touchscreens, robot AI, and live video feeds. Visuals have gained higher resolution, have become crisper, cleaner, faster, slimmer. This technology, however, did not originally start off in the hands of the public, but rather the work places of highly trained professionals. Now, everyone has advanced technology at their finger tips.
Video calls have existed since the 1850's, mostly used for business and telecommunications. The public didn't get a hold of the technology until a decade later, in the 1860's. However, it didn't gain popularity until a decade after that. The Picturephone was what it was called, back in the day, and that was the first commercially sold product that supported video calls. It was pretty much a TV with a camera hooked up to a phone. Yes. It was boxy. Since then, however, video calls have upgraded from box with boxes to smartphones with cameras, with more expensive and high-quality video and call quality...and color! Though video technology is still being used in the work force today, it is also much more accessible to the common person - and their long-distance relatives.
Video calls have existed since the 1850's, mostly used for business and telecommunications. The public didn't get a hold of the technology until a decade later, in the 1860's. However, it didn't gain popularity until a decade after that. The Picturephone was what it was called, back in the day, and that was the first commercially sold product that supported video calls. It was pretty much a TV with a camera hooked up to a phone. Yes. It was boxy. Since then, however, video calls have upgraded from box with boxes to smartphones with cameras, with more expensive and high-quality video and call quality...and color! Though video technology is still being used in the work force today, it is also much more accessible to the common person - and their long-distance relatives.
A Model 1 Picturephone from 1965
Also in the 1800's (1880's specifically), was the creation of the first Telautograph, a combination of a tablet, fax machine, and writing desk. You used a pen and paper to write or draw, and an electrical signal sends it to a similar machine in a different place. Papers could be signed from states apart, pictures can be drawn live from somewhere else, and articles can be written on the spot away from the office. This technology has grown and evolved out of the work place, as well as out of it's box phase, into a professional and recreational device known as the tablet.
Iamge of the Telautograph from The Manufacturer & Builder, vol 25(4) p. 77
Current-day Wacom Cintiq tablet
Annabelle, you bring up two technologies that have emerged -- essentially, video calling and tablets. I'm wondering, though, if these are actual "paradigm" shifts. Or, are they simply technological innovations? To grapple with this, you might need to flesh out the significance. What does this new way of doing something -- conversing, sharing ideas -- actually mean? Why does it matter? What does it reflect about our culture, or our past culture, and how we've changed?
ReplyDeleteSo, I'd keep digging here. I'm not sure if these two ideas are as fleshed-out as they need to be to really work as a topic. Thanks!