desktop video

In computing, a videoconferencing system that can be used by an individual from a desktop computer. A desktop conferencing system needs a computer, an attached video camera, microphone, and speakers, and a telephone or network connection.

Early videoconferencing systems required such expensive equipment that participants had to gather in the room where the equipment was kept. Systems introduced in the mid-1990s, however, made videoconferencing as convenient, private, and easy to use as ordinary telephone calls. On-line chat and messaging systems such as Microsoft Messenger, together with low cost web-cams have made personal communications with video commonplace.

The first desktop videoconferencing system on the Internet was CU-SeeMe.