Good to See You-User responses to a TV-based video telephony service

After many years of slow adoption within the market, video telephony is finally becoming accepted, e.g. in its high end version and in the form of video calls piggy-backed through computer-based VoIP services. Within the home, the TV set may serve as a useful additional way to access video-based communications. TV could also make video telephony accessible to people without computers or to people with insufficient computer skills. This paper presents a user study of a TV-based video telephony application. While, on average, more participants preferred the computer as a platform, many showed a strong preference for using video telephony on living-room TVs over computers, particularly those who experienced the application within a home setting. Our data indicate some strengths and weaknesses of living-room TVs as a platform for video telephony, and some requirements for the design of video telephony services aimed at the living room context.