the picturephone

The PicturePhone was an early attempt to combine voice calling with live video, allowing people to see and speak with each other remotely. Developed in the 1960s, it used video screens and specialized phones connected through telephone lines, akin to a video chat. While innovative, it was expensive and had technical limitations, which kept it from becoming mainstream. Today, it laid the groundwork for modern video calling and conferencing technologies we use via smartphones and the internet.