This Ad Promised 3D Videophones and Robot Shoppers by the Year 2000

This Ad Promised 3D Videophones and Robot Shoppers by the Year 2000

Back in 1968, the videophone was supposed to be just around the corner. Phone companies around the world were working diligently to make it a reality. But sometimes their futuristic promises could go a little overboard, like in this Southwestern Bell ad that promised not just videophones, but three-dimensional videophones—and robot shopping—by the year 2000.

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A Brief History of the Videophone That Almost Was

A Brief History of the Videophone That Almost Was

The videophone is one of those technologies that more or less snuck up on us. Promises that one day you’d not only be able to hear but see a person through your telephone are nearly as old as the telephone itself. The videophone spent nearly a century as every bit as much a "technology of the future" as the flying car and the jetpack. We were always this close to making our picturephone dreams come true. And then we did, in a way no one expected.

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