We dedicate this book to the people who had the vision to persist beyond the earliest prototypes of videoconferencing systems. We honor those lone individuals who excitedly sat in darkened sound-proofed booths squinting at blue light and photoelectric cells to claim success when they could barely make out a dim and fuzzy image of another human being they were talking to. We also cheer those individuals who kept a clear vision of what videoconferencing could be even while they laid lines sometimes consisting of more than twenty linked regular telephone lines to transmit almost stationary images.

They are the pioneers in the field and without their efforts and vision, we would not enjoy the sharp, crisp, almost natural images we can see today while videoconferencing.