io" sparked the idea of roving, wireless, mobile communications Nobody knew (and who really cared) how it all worked-in the post-depression world, something that was "Dick Tracy" became synonymous with incredible and fanciful technology. Similarly, Jules Verne's post-civil war stories of amazing technology more than a half- century earlier depicted unheard-of wonders that allowed men to travel to the moon and enjoy deep-sea adventures on the Nautilus. Verne imagined a world of electricity and a host of other high-tech Science Fiction gadgets that were yet to be invented! It is interesting to note that now, early in the 21st century, Verne's picture of a high tech world seem oddly prophetic, with real-world examples of his "futuristic" technologies now decades old, rusting and aging in modern museums. It took less than a century for the wildest fictional dreams of the one of the worlds most imaginative minds to become eclipsed with even more amazing science and technology. In the middle of the 20th Century, post World-War II dreamers cast their vision of a high-tech future, ever pushing the boundaries of possibility and inspiring scientists and inventors to solve "how" one might actually accomplish such incredible things. For example, Gene Roddenberry's Sci-Fi masterpiece about futuristic voyages into "Space, the Final Frontier" detailed a host of non-existent "technologies" that scientists are successfully creating decades later. Capt. Kirk's communicator (the first flip-phone) may have been bigger that Dick Tracy's wrist watch, but hey-it could talk to a space ship orbiting the planet! Detailed descriptions of phasers, tricorders, even the "Transporter beam" are now available in "Technical Manuals" that are becoming less fiction and more science with each passing year. Roddenberry's stories inspired following generations to dream even bigger dreams. Mobile Videoconferencing and Interactive Multimedia It is not difficult to identify the inspiration of Verne, Roddenberry and countless others who imagined new and n