I think I like the concept: personalizing communication over the web.

But I don't get how you're getting there.. Little movie clips? I don't see how that's much different than an emoticon really - unless there are thousands of them, in which case you spend 15 minutes looking for the clip that represents how you feel right now?

I think video chat does a great job of improving communication, and it's widely (freely) available.

I'm not getting it...

Thanks PR, i have not formulated a complete picture here, i am blue skying this idea .. what i envisage is subtle and bold inflection of communication thru pictures, sound and graphics to add to or compliment communication by way of a more personalized interraction .. not just an emoticon that reflects a state of smile or grimace .. there are many levels in between that would be more complimentary to the communication desired.

I think we are looking at a completely different level of chat technology where pictures and graphics are dominant in the communication and by pictures i mean more substantial content not the very basic emoticon type punctuation.

Pictures could be a one frame picture for example, reflecting a pleasant surprise or a couple of frames .. for example, a frown morphing into a smile to indicate lets say initial confusion followed by understanding.

A picture of a cute puppy would convey a look and engender an emotional reception to what is about to be said far greater in effect than dozens of sentences! and so on...

The chat dialog window would be AI driven so that pictorial suggestions are always at hand based upon the current conversation content. A hot list of available pictures, graphics, sounds, quotes etc. could be configured offline by each user. Favorites would always be at hand. Users could select themes of conversational types of activity to be made available.

A visual window and a chat window would be concurrently visible, history of the conversation could be presented like frames in a movie .. sound bites could also be tagged to frames and chat words. Famous quotes, subject content or cliches could be inserted at a click of the mouse.

Writing this makes me think of producing a real time movie of cummunication being the metaphor that comes to mind!

Video chat is an excellent medium but it removes the intrigue that is inherrent in chat and a lot of people are too shy or just not keen on this medium of self expression.

love to hear more development on this theme:)

sooo... like http://radar.net ?

Try to sell it to MSN/Yahoo/AIM?

Your idea is to have even more chat emoticons to choose from? Narrowing down the list of emoticons with AI is the only thing that redeems this idea, but people would not pay for it. Its also hard to market because its so ho-hum. There is also tons of competition from all the chat behemoths. It can't be a plugin because then both parties need to install it. It has to be an entirely new chat application. I just don't see this being a top ten idea and wonder why 90% of the ideas in the top 30 ideas come from about 5 people.

Thanks jmetcalf27 .. i just looked at radar.net now and they somewhat approach the visual metaphor but they are too photo centric .. i would see the chat application as a much wider canvas of communicaion.

For example, the graphics could be simple or complex depending on the need. Have a look a www.mrpicassohead.com for an example of very simple graphics that can be both fun, quick and very expressive .. then imagine something like that as one of the types of graphic communication options that could be pre-assembled into many forms for instant selection .. or imagine a real time graphic composition forming at the recipients chat window as the conversation progresses .. add frames of picture morphs, static photos, sound bites and text chat .. imagine it playing out and being viewed in timelines of frames of a movie .. thats the flavour of what i am suggesting.

tublius .. no i don't think you have grasped the idea .. i am not suggesting chat with emoticons that is ho-hum and overplayed!! .. i am obviously suggesting a new type of chat application, one that sufficiently breaks new ground, that creates a buzz, one that will attract consumers with its novelty value .. even if only on the basis of a fun new way to communicate with friends etc. and even if only targeted at the youth market .. it could be very rewarding!

Technically, whether it be pluggin based or whether it be delivered as realtime generated flash content or some other media format .. that i would leave for some creative experts in these fields of discipline to suggest.

This project needs 'out of the box' thinkers and people with creative imagination and expert skills.

I put in this idea to stretch the envelope, to see whether we have these crowdsource resources yet.

Aidan, as this idea is still formulating i dont have definitive ideas of revenue generation other than to say yes licensing to other vendors is a prime opportunity. However, there are many ways this type of development can achieve strong revenue flows.

If it comes out as a download product then we would have the free lite model with advertising in place and then the upsell opportunity to the 'all bells and whistles' version.

If it is a server based delivery platform then subscription models could be the way to go.

I would also like to see a lite version of the technology be made available for mobile phones/pda either for the i-mode or 3G platforms but this is further down the line i think.

I'm not sure where you are going with this idea;

something like a visual comments in your (wordpress) blog perhaps?
http://ninni.student.utwente.nl/testblog/