If this tech turns out to be too expensive (for normal people) we could still use it on a pay-per-use basis, like with a "video conferencing booth". You'd schedule your call and reserve a local booth for both participants through an app. And most companies should be able to afford having one of these in the office.
This is assuming that this somehow does allow me to interrupt someone's sentence — otherwise might as well do a zoom call.
2020 notes:
>["Why are jail phone calls so expensive?"] (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-are-jail-phone-calls-so-exp...) OCTOBER 13, 2020
> ["A mom’s $6,000 phone bill in three months: The push to rein in Ontario’s costly prison phone system"](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-activists-see...) JANUARY 30, 2020
> [Martha Wright Prison Phone Justice Act] (https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/6389) 03/25/2020
The office use case is probably more realistic, but some other related products (Surface Hub, Jamboard) haven't become as ubiquitous as originally imagined.
1. Call for free from home/couch with a regular camera in the privacy of my home.
2. Go to some location and pay a third party to do a less private call, and have a better visual experience.
The most obvious choice would be number 1 in 99.9% of all cases. In theory, privacy can be increased by creating a sound-proofed environment for your call, but in practice, that would easily become very expensive.
Edit: And even 0.01% of the video call market would be quite large. Naturally this idea wouldn't work if something like 10% of all video calls were replaced with these booths, they would be fully booked for weeks forward. ;)
Edit2: And we already know most people don't care that much about their privacy since they already use services like Google Meet and Zoom and whatnot.
I’d first go with an Internet cafe style booth booking. Book an hour slot and get your coffee included.
Setup cafes in major cities and I think people would use this - could imagine setting a meet with a friend in another country. Parents showing off their new babies. Etc.
It seems we're seeing a second coming of distributed private comms.
Most companies don't give decent webcams already, I doubt they'd consider paying thousands for such a system.