You Will
Encyclopedia
"You Will" was an AT&T
marketing campaign from the early 1990s, directed by David Fincher
. Each ad presented a futuristic scenario, over which the voice of Tom Selleck
narrated, beginning with "Have you ever..." and ending with "You will. And the company that will bring it to you is AT&T". One sequence, featuring a mother communicating with her baby using a videophone, featured future star Jenna Elfman
.
American Telephone & Telegraph
AT&T Corp., originally American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies. AT&T is the oldest telecommunications company...
marketing campaign from the early 1990s, directed by David Fincher
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
. Each ad presented a futuristic scenario, over which the voice of Tom Selleck
Tom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....
narrated, beginning with "Have you ever..." and ending with "You will. And the company that will bring it to you is AT&T". One sequence, featuring a mother communicating with her baby using a videophone, featured future star Jenna Elfman
Jenna Elfman
Jennifer Mary "Jenna" Elfman is an American television and film actress. She is known for her role as Dharma on the ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg and as Billie on the short-lived CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose....
.
Innovations
The proposed innovations included:- Grocery checkout machines that would process an entire cart at a time without the groceries needing to be removed, presumably via RFID or something similar ("Have you ever checked out at the supermarket, a whole cart at a time?")
- TelemedicineTelemedicineTelemedicine is the use of telecommunication and information technologies in order to provide clinical health care at a distance. It helps eliminate distance barriers and can improve access to medical services that would often not be consistently available in distant rural communities...
("[Have you ever] put your heads together, when you're not together?") - A Software agentSoftware agentIn computer science, a software agent is a piece of software that acts for a user or other program in a relationship of agency, which derives from the Latin agere : an agreement to act on one's behalf...
("Have you ever had an assistant who lived in your computer?") - VideoconferencingVideoconferencingVideoconferencing is the conduct of a videoconference by a set of telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously...
("Have you ever shown up for a meeting in your bare feet?") - A GPS navigation systemAutomotive navigation systemAn automotive navigation system is a satellite navigation system designed for use in automobiles. It typically uses a GPS navigation device to acquire position data to locate the user on a road in the unit's map database. Using the road database, the unit can give directions to other locations...
with real-time traffic data ("Have you ever crossed the country without stopping to ask directions?") - WifiWIFIWIFI is a radio station broadcasting a brokered format. Licensed to Florence, New Jersey, USA, the station is currently operated by Florence Broadcasting Partners, LLC.This station was previously owned by Real Life Broadcasting...
/WANWide area networkA wide area network is a telecommunication network that covers a broad area . Business and government entities utilize WANs to relay data among employees, clients, buyers, and suppliers from various geographical locations...
and portable pen computingPen computingPen computing refers to a computer user-interface using a pen and tablet, rather than devices such as a keyboard, joysticks or a mouse....
("Have you ever sent a fax from the beach?") - Wristwatch cell phones ("[Have you ever] gotten a phone call, on your wrist?")
- Some sort of personal information consolidation ("Have you ever renewed your drivers license at a cash machine?")
- Real-time online collaboration, envisioned as two students teaching each other their native languages over videophoneVideophoneA videophone is a telephone with a video screen, and is capable of full duplex video and audio transmissions for communication between people in real-time...
("Have you ever studied with a classmate thousands of miles away?") and, in a separate ad, as a father reading a bed-time story to his child remotely, while they both view the same page of the story on their individual laptops. - Online libraries ("Have you ever borrowed a book, thousands of miles away?")
- Electronic toll collectionElectronic toll collectionElectronic toll collection , an adaptation of military "identification friend or foe" technology, aims to eliminate the delay on toll roads by collecting tolls electronically. It is thus a technological implementation of a road pricing concept...
("Have you ever paid a toll without slowing down?") - Video on demandVideo on demandVideo on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
("Have you ever watched the movie you wanted to, when you wanted to?") - A combination of video conferencing, speech recognitionSpeech recognitionSpeech recognition converts spoken words to text. The term "voice recognition" is sometimes used to refer to recognition systems that must be trained to a particular speaker—as is the case for most desktop recognition software...
, and translation software ("[Have you ever] conducted business in a language you don't understand?") - Home automationHome automationHome automation is the residential extension of "building automation". It is automation of the home, housework or household activity. Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC , appliances, and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and...
("[Have you ever] kept an eye on your home when you're not at home?") which is accessed in the ad via a touchscreenTouchscreenA touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus...
smartphoneSmartphoneA smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
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