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back to article Skype: 3D video calling is the FUTURE

Online chat biz Skype says it has developed 3D video calling - but it doesn't know when it will roll out the feature, if at all. Having to yell at your parents overseas that they need to turn off normal video if they want to have enough bandwidth left to hold anything akin to a decent non-time-lapsed conversation is not enough …

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  1. auburnman

    My guess is they are trying to eventually develop facilities that allow 3D teleconferencing, what with Microsoft's usual relentless focus on businesses. More power to them if they can get it done, I just hope they don't manage to break the interface or shaft consumers in the process.

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    1. JDX Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      Yeah, it's cool to do even if there's no immediate use. Remember, video conferencing used to be something people willingly paid big bucks for, before the tech (mainly infrastructure) became ubiquitous.

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      1. Ian Michael Gumby
        Reply Icon

        Big difference between Skype and Cisco high end gear.

        You can't compare the Skype and WebEx to the dedicated Cisco gear in terms of conferencing.

        The Cisco gear sets up dedicated rooms with video and cameras which can follow the speaker plus other gadgets.

        Granted those customers do a lot more than the occasional talks and its meant for point to point communication between fixed points.

        Skype and others are not.

        -Just saying.

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  2. Atonnis

    Whoopee

    Online chat biz Skype has done something really pointless. Great.

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    1. JDX Gold badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Whoopee

      R&D for its own sake isn't pointless.

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    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Whoopee

      Pseudonymous internet commentator looks down on something he's not seen, doesn't understand and is in no way qualified to judge. Colour me surprised.

      Great.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Whoopee

        Oh and whats the difference between what he did and what you are doing ?

        Great, not.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    PR deflection from all the NSA revelations.

    Nothing more.

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  4. This post has been deleted by its author

  5. Francis Boyle Silver badge

    I hear they're getting

    Anthony Weiner to endorse this.

    You know it makes sense.

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  6. Simon Rockman

    I don't see why it is so hard..

    A lenticular lens for a screen of a known dot-pitch and a camera with two lenses at a known distance apart.

    And as with the paperback book, VHS, DVD and broadband it will be porn that drives the usage.

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    1. James Hughes 1
      Reply Icon

      Re: I don't see why it is so hard..

      Quite. The capture device could be really cheap - use a processor from a RaspberryPi, use the two CSI-2 camera channels to capture in stereo and encode to H264. Total cost, $30-40 to the end user.

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      1. Christian Berger
        Reply Icon

        Re: I don't see why it is so hard..

        Well they'll need to be properly calibrated. And of course if you try to transmit 2 h.264 streams you will run into sync problems. My guess is that, if they even have done anything, they are working on interpolation so you can get arbitrary eye positions on the straight defined by the 2 cameras.

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  7. nutsontheroad

    Other than sending a second video stream for the other eyeball what 'innovation' is required?

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  8. Tom 35

    Now you get to

    yell at your parents to put their 3D goggles on.

    They have come up with something even more pointless then 3D TV!

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  9. Steve Medway

    3 Questions, obvious answer, please connect the dots.

    Who is Skype owned by..... Microsoft.

    Does the Xbox One come with a mandatory Kinect Sensor perfectly capable of 3D tracking...... yes it does.

    Does just about every new high end TV come with 3D support (wether you want it or not)... yes they do.

    Will the Xbox One support 3D Skype at some point in the future...... is it really that hard for The Reg to join the dots?

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    1. Mike Brown
      Reply Icon

      Re: 3 Questions, obvious answer, please connect the dots.

      ting ting ting, we have a winner

      Its the 1st thing i thought of too. HD 3d chat would be very cool. But i dont the infrastructure is anywhere near that level yet. Maybe somone in south korea could 3d chat with someone else in south korea.

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      1. Steve Medway
        Reply Icon

        Re: 3 Questions, obvious answer, please connect the dots.

        3D chat could be used on any connection that can cope with NetflixHD.

        This isn't a high bandwidth application, it's a high processing requirement application. After processing the co-ordinates required to be sent to the other party would be a tiny percentage of the video stream itself.

        The video stream would still be the same size as a 2D stream, the only thing that's being altered is your viewport onto the scene based upon your location in relation to your kinect sensor.

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  10. GBE

    but it doesn't know when it will roll out the feature

    From what I've seen, they haven't yet "rolled out" reliable 2D video conferencing.

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  11. Graham Marsden
    Angel

    And of course...

    ... the first adopters of this will be those ladies who charge you several pounds a minute for a video chat.

    ... erm, at least that's what I've heard...

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  12. jubtastic1

    The future is 3D

    Oh no it isn't.

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