(via Retrothing)

Ikonophone, 1927

In 1927 an electromechanical television-videophone named ikonophone was created by AT&T. It could send video signals with a speed of 18 frames per second but it was only one-way. In the 1930s, more than 200 scientists, engineers and technicians led by Dr. Herbert Ives were working on a two-way solution, and this led to the PicturePhone three decades later.

Detail of the system with the motor and the switch assembly.

(via Early Television)

A video call from the movie High Treason (1929)

(via horrornews)

The first public videophone service, 1936

This public videophone was opened by the German Reichspost in 1936. It closed in 1940, because of WWII.

Developed by Dr. Georg Schubert, the videophone connected Berlin with Leipzig and Hamburg, using broadband coaxial cable. It used 8 inches (20 cm) square displays and the video achieved a speed of 25 frames per second. In 1938 the service was broadened to connect Leipzig with Nüremburg and Munich.

(via Telephone History Page, Flickr/Wolfsraum, oebl and earlytelevision)

Short video calls from Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936)

(via YouTube)

The Bell System PicturePhone, 1956

The company estimated that three million units would be used in homes and offices by the mid-1980s, but the device was test marketed in the early 1960s and never became popular. AT&T finally abandoned the whole project in 1973.

(via miedl.net)

Buy a Hughes Tronotron, and you will be able to see over the phone, 1957

(via Paleofuture)

AT&T Picturephone, 1960s

Bell Labs developed the Picturephone that debuted at the 1964 World's Fair.

In the next few years the company rolled out three Picturephone booths in New York, Chicago and Washington DC, but these could communicate only with each other. The service was really expensive, and costs ranged from $16 to $27 for only three minutes, which is equal to $120-200 in 2013 dollars. In 1970, Bell launched Picturephone service in Pittsburgh, but the prices remained really high. The Picturephone was ahead of its time, but it never became popular.

(via Early Television, DLDHistory, The Phone Booth and Wikimedia Commons/Richard Diehl)

Ericcson videophone, 1960s

In the mid-1960s the engineers at Swedish firm Ericsson began to develop a videophone for organizations, industry, government offices and businesses. The phone had a mirror that could be flipped up in front of the camera lens. This enabled the user to talk while pointing out something on a paper. The phone had an Ericovox loudspeaker phone as the audio component and a monitor with an attached camera for the video signals, because they couldn't transmit both audio and video data in one single cable. Ericsson engineers tested this system for years, but in 1977 they abandoned the project: the prices were too high and the users weren't impressed enough.

The Swedish Prime Minister, Tage Erlander, uses the videophone to talk to Lennart Hyland, a popular TV show host, 1969.

(via Ericssonkrönikan/Wikimedia Commons and Ericsson History)

A video call from 2001: Space Odyssey (1968)

(via YouTube)

Western Electric crosses a telephone with a TV set, 1968

(via BoingBoing)

Matsushita's concept from 1968, Japan

(via oebl)

Visiophone by Matra, 1970

The French electronics company Matra developed this device with CIT-Alcatel and Thomson-Brandt. The sale price was around $6000 in 2013 dollars. They wanted to use it for internal calls at a French telecommunications company and later for commercial use, but the product languished in a concept stage.

(via Wikimedia Commons)

Progress, by Blue Earth Valley Telephone Company, 1976

(via metkere)

Vid-Phon from Blade Runner (1982)

From Total Recall (1990)