Skype Executive Says Company Has Already Developed 3-D Video Calling

For Skype's tenth anniversary, they have announced they have developed 3-D video calls, BBC News confirmed in an interview with an executive.

In an advertisement in April, the video calling company said it wanted to create "body doubles" as a way for businessmen to virtually be in a meeting when they physically could not be. However, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Skype Mark Gillett said that could be many years away.

"We've done work in the labs looking at the capability of 3D-screens and 3D-capture," he said. "We've seen a lot of progress in screens and a lot of people now buy TVs and computer monitors that are capable of delivering a 3D image."

He said although devices are available to support the technology, making it work in someone's home is much more complicated.

"As we work with that kind of technology you have to add multiple cameras to your computer, precisely calibrate them and point them at the right angle," Gillett said. "We have it in the lab, we know how to make it work and we're looking at the ecosystem of devices and their capability to support it in order to make a decision when we might think about bringing something like that to market."

3-D has already caught on in the entertainment industry with successful films such as James Cameron's "Avatar," one of the first blockbusters to feature real-life actors, computer animation and 3-D. Many completely animated films have also taken advantage.

The technology has also entered television, with ESPN and BBC each adding a 3-D component. With television and movies, all it takes is for the viewer to put on a pair of special, but inexpensive glasses. Still, Cameron told BBC it is "inevitable" that all forms of entertainment will eventually be 3-D. Gillett agreed with the film director.

"I can imagine a day when you have a 3D-cellphone screen that doesn't need 3D-glasses to use it," he said. "It's less clear to me that we're close to having 3D cameras on cellphones."

Gillett noted that TVs, movies, games and even smartphones will be way ahead of video calling in terms of perfecting 3-D technology. In the mean time, he said Skype will be working on something many computer screen can support right now: "super-high definition" 1080p video call resolution.