Deutsche Welle: So tell me a little bit about this Skype video booth that has been launched at the Tallinn airport. What is it exactly and when did it start?
Merilin Pärli: Well, we opened it exactly one week ago. And it is quite unique. It's the first one in the world. It's a Skype station, and you can take free video calls from there. Anybody who has a Skype account can use it. And of course if you have Skype credit, you can call regular numbers as well. As you probably know, Skype has more than 600 million users all over the world, and that's increasing day by day.
Skype was an idea that was developed in Estonia, and they now develop it in Estonia as well, although it has become quite international already. We still have one unit - the development unit - here in Tallinn. It was quite logical that the initial home of Skype would have a Skype station in Estonia at Tallinn airport, which is named after Lennart Meri, the former Estonian president, who urged people to find some useful innovation to put Estonia on a map. If Skype isn't that, then what is?
Can you describe what the booth looks like, and how you interact with it?
It looks like something from space. It's something very UFO-like. It has a futuristic look. When you step on the floor of the station, it changes the color, and that means you can log on, and to log off you just have to step out of the booth.
So there's a platform sensor?
Yes, yes. At first it's blue, and then it turns green when you step on it. When you step off, then you will be logged off.
Is it enclosed, like an old-style phone booth? Or is it open?
It's open, but it's very discreet, because you have a wall behind your back, so nobody can really walk through [behind you]. So it's absolutely safe to take your calls there.
Is it just a computer mounted into this little booth, or is it something else?
It's a screen, of 22 inches (56 centimeters), and there is the headset as well. But if you want you can use your own. When you want, you can log on, and dial your friend. If your friend also has a camera, then you can see your friend's face, and you can talk to your friend as in an ordinary video call. You walk into this booth, and the platform changes color, and there's this big screen.
Is it a touch screen?
Yes, it's a touch screen.
So you just log on, there's a virtual keyboard and you can log on to your account that way?
The interface is exactly the same as Skype has. But it was designed by a company called AdTech, a small Estonian company. They just used the software of Skype. It's a new development. As Skype Estonia has said, they are very welcoming to other companies using their technology and coming up with new technologies. That should be the natural way of doing innovation. And actually the guys behind this Skype station, they have the idea that this should go into mass production. So maybe in a year, hopefully, every airport will have its own Skype station.
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