Kyocera of Kyoto has developed a colour mobile videophone that will go into
service on Japan’s personal handyphone service (PHS) in July. A small camera
lens is fitted above a screen that shows images of the other phone
user—although only at the rate of two frames per second. Kyocera engineer
Yoshiyuki Shibata says the slow frame rate is caused by the 32 kilobits per
second speed of the PHS, which is a cheap network using low power base stations
mounted on city street corners. The videophone is expected to cost around
£200.
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