We have for some time now had the ability to video chat with family and friends on smartphones and tablet, video chat isn’t new to the mobile space, but this is still simply chatting to others on screen, and not the same as a face to face conversation albeit the next best thing. However with new tech on the horizon the way forward with video chat and conferencing seems to be with 3D tech.

An article over on Android Authority takes a look at a new 3D video conferencing tech that Google is hoping to patent, a 3D technology that means portable devices such as notebooks could soon appear with stereoscopic cameras, which means there are two cameras that take a single picture from differing perspectives to give that 3D look.

However, with this new 3D tech patent, Google seems to be looking to take things a little further, for example if another person joins a video conferencing session in the same room, the tech switched from stereoscopic mode to multi image mode so that the subjects appear side-by-side even when using just one notebook and sitting across from each other.

Google’s patent filing indicates that this new 3D video conferencing technology could be used on traditional laptops, eReaders, tablets, smartphones and more, and could be of use for multi-party video conferencing when there is only one device on the other end.

For those that are into all the technical explanations of patents you can check out the patent at Patent Bolt, but if the patent is granted to Google we could soon see 3D video conferencing coming to both mobile phones and tablets.