Hasta La Gadget!

A tiny device promises to make video conferencing a better experience by using the TV that’s already in your living room.

Nyoombl, an interestingly named startup, makes a gadget called Greypfroot that will sit on top of your TV and allow you to make calls from one TV to another or to a phone mobile or a PC.

“Why can’t [people] with laptops today enjoy video calls with loved ones who are currently familiar with TV sets?” Oladayo Olagunju, CEO of Nyoombl said during his presentation at the DEMO Spring conference Tuesday. “Teleconferencing really doesn’t have to require any corporate dedicated setup that has to cost thousands of dollars.”

The caller and receiver don’t have to always have the Nyoombl device, except in case of TV-to-TV teleconferencing, says the company. The only requirement is that one of the users have an account with an online e-mail service that also offers video chat such as Google Talk or Yahoo.

“We are working on open clients similar to Google Talk, and hope that the proprietary ones will open up to interoperability as we continue to engage them in talks,” says Nyoombl in its website.

Increasingly, TV makers are looking to add video conferencing as one of the applications built into TV sets. Samsung and LG, for instance, offer Skype on newer TVs. Skype on TVs will be similar in its interface to the application that PC users are familiar with, but it is not available on all TVs.

Nyoombl says its advantage is that it works with existing TV sets. The Nyoombl Greypfroot is a “palm-sized device” that sits on top of the TV screen. The device includes a webcam and comes with its basic conferencing own software that can send and receive calls from TVs. Nyoombl’s Greypfroot “connects via the TV’s coaxial connection and adds an interface to accept or reject incoming video chat requests,”  says CNET.

To initiate a call from a TV, you can use the TV’s remote, while the other person is on a laptop, say Google Talk. When the call’s connected, the TV screen is split into two halves, even as the show the TV is running continues in the background.

Nyoombl hasn’t disclosed pricing for the device yet but Olagunju says it will be more affordable than a “current smartphone on the market.”

Check out the video to see Nyoombl’s demo.