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st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme- mso-fareast- mso-fareast-theme- mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme- mso-bidi- mso-bidi-theme-} Even as the world economy seems to be stumbling backward toward events like the Great Depression, technology has produced an affordable video phone worthy of the futuristic Jetsons.
It is now possible to do residential face-to-face phone visits in real time with images that are truly clear. The applications range from a far off family getting to see Grandma every day to busy doctors literally seeing patients who are still home.  Â
But rather than a big corporation making such a science fiction staple into an everyday convenience, the videophone is the product of Woodstock-based, family-owned Wind Currents Communications. And the reason the videophone is finally ready to take its long expected place as a common convenience is simple. “The technology has evolved,” said John Monahan, president and CEO of the company,
Originally invented in 1953 and popularized by ATT at the 1964 World”™s Fair in Flushing, the acceptance of videophones has been hampered by cumbersome equipment, jerky picture quality and special equipment that needed at least some level of installation expertise. (The supposed drawback ”“ the “just out of the shower” moment ”“ was never really an issue as it turns out.)
Monahan recently showed off the V2VIP Voice and Video Internet Phone, with a 5.5-inch color screen showing the smiling visage of his wife Stephaneye Boyd Monahan, using the V2VIP in another room of their home. She could have easily been in Dubuque or Dublin or anywhere else with a V2VIP unit and a broadband or DSL line to be heard and seen with just as much immediacy.Â
The screen has a capacity of 30 frames per second and the entire unit takes up about the same amount of room as a desk phone, with the pop up screen. The unit can serve as a standard desk phone for calls from persons not using V2VIP. It is dialed like a standard phone even for a videophone call.
Monahan said the advance that finally has videophones poised for incursion into mainstream consumer use is that new models are plug in units that can be set up from retail box to real use in a matter of minutes simply clicking two wires into USB ports and sending a signal to a central server to activate service.
Earlier versions of videophones required technical prowess. “It became a challenge for the average person; it wasn”™t a plug in solution,” said Monahan. But now models are assigned an account number that is automatically recognized by a company server and smoothly integrated into the network. “A customer takes it out of box, connects one wire into a cable modem or router, connects the other to electricity and in a matter of seconds is able to dial like they would a regular phone,” he said.
In 2007, Monahan and his wife, the company senior vice president, founded Wind Current Communictions Inc. to market the V2VIP videophone and calling plans. “What we developed there was a voice and video platform that could replace traditional telephone service with combined video phone, and with the possibility for unlimited worldwide video network calling,” he said.
The retail price for the unit is $149 and customer plans for unlimited calls locally, nationally and globally within the company network retail for between $23 and $30 monthly.
The system allows unprecedented flexibility. “The local area code concept is part of the old, traditional telephone system,” said Monahan, who said that since high-speed Internet phone service is available nationwide customers can select a phone number from elsewhere in the U.S.California”™s 310 area code around Los Angeles, a V2VIP user in the Hudson Valley can select a number with a 310 area code for the unit and keep in touch for the price of a local call. If family and friends reside in
Real time sharp video links have “an alphabet of applications,” Monahan said, citing visiting, collaborations in projects, training and technical support, child visitation and other applications and monitoring health regimens such as taking the proper medication.          Â
Prior to their Wind Current Communications project, the company operated Wind Current Technologies, which was founded in 1998 as a pioneer in analog speed POTS videophones. That company found a niche market with remote medical visitation and even psychiatric counseling. The idea was suggested to them by outreach counselors from Sloan Kettering memorial hospital as a way for cancer patients to see their loved ones. Then a Veteran”™s Administration official contacted the company to explore remote counseling and medical check-in services.
“And at that point we connected the dots,” said Monahan, saying the company has specialized in “tele-healthcare” for several years until recent technological improvements made the videophone practical. To take advantage of the new opportunities, Wind Current Communications was founded in 2006. High gas prices and the desire to save travel costs have given added impetus to the technology, as families and businesses alike look for convenient, economical and environmentally sound methods to stay in touch. Thus, Monahan said, he is expecting to be in position to push a great leap forward for videophones. “We”™re looking for investors,” he said.
For more information, go to www.v2vip.com.