Access Grid
Recently I used the Beckman connection to the “Access Grid” for a teleconference. This is a breath-takingly expensive system, although it needs work on the human interface end and I left with a sense that this technology still has a way to go.
These systems need ways to spatialize the images from the different settings in a way that users can quickly grasp, something that’s really not there yet. I believe that video conference systems will be “good enough” when participants look at the screen rather than turning to look at the people at their local site. There are reasons for doing that—you would get a head-on rather than a sideways view of the person talking—but I didn’t see evidence of it.
On the other hand, part of the conference involved showing a video for the participants, and that was very effective. So there are parts of this system that work quite well, parts that will become less intrusive with experience, and other parts that really need work.