Digital Sprocket

I witnessed something today that presages the future of hand-held video communications. My wife and I were shopping for yarn in Seoul’s famous Domdaemun market. This is a mammoth textile wholesale and retail building with thousands of small vendors. While my wife picked out yarn for her next knitting projects I watched the pair of Korean women next to her. They were having a lively three-way conversation while poring over yarn swatches in the merchant’s product binder.

I did mention that these two women were having a three-way conversation, right? The third member of the group was on the other end of a video cell phone connection. The two women did not point the camera on the phone at themselves, but rather at the swatch book. Obviously their third, invisible partner was selecting the correct color and style of yarn with their help.

From this little tableau we can glimpse the future role these digital device will likely have. Anyone who does purchasing for a business will be able to use the video link to shorten their purchase approval cycle by showing samples to his boss while still out in the field. Speaking of out in the field, can you imagine a junior electrician who spots an oddity on while working on an electrical connection at the top of a telephone pole. He whips out his phone and calls up a senior electrician with 40 years of experience. He shows his senior partner the oddity and asks for advice before he blacks out the entire neighborhood.

Taking a photo and sending it to a friend or coworker is fine, but it is far more cumbersome than live video, even of poor quality, for real time conversations. This will allow us to share some visual information as easily as we share audio information. Personally I look forward to the day when I’m in the grocery store, and I point the camera at the shelves while asking my wife, “they have three varieties of soy sauce. Which one of these do you want?”