History Main / ScreensAreCameras

* SSTV (Slow Scanning Television) was a method of image translation used in amateur radio practice before cheap cameras were available. It required only one light sensor instead of a proper camera and used a TV screen [CRT] for scanning. It was a more or less a shadow puppet theater for a [[UsefulNotes/GeneralGamingGamepads light-gun controller]].

* The trope might be influenced by the real life fact that early TV cameras used CRTs (in the same way that a microphone and a loudspeaker are essentially the same thing used differently), something that the audience at large probably didn't know, but people in the industry probably would.

* The Telescreens in ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'' are this.

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* In ''{{Spider-Man}}'' comics, the earliest versions of the Spider-Slayer robots worked this way. The robots, piloted remotely by J. Jonah Jameson, would seem to have no technological ''need'' to project JJJ's face onto a TV screen mounted on the robot's "head," but that's exactly what they do.

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* Taken to somewhat silly extremes in BigBangTheory, where everyone uses Skype. People on screen will turn their heads to look at the person they are addressing, which means on their end they would be looking at the wall.

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* Many of the screens in the ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' universe seem capable of this, particularly the Combine screens of ''VideoGame/HalfLife2''.

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* SSTV (Slow Scanning Television) was a method of image translation used in amateur radio practice before cheap cameras were available. It required only one light sensor instead of a proper camera and used a TV screen [CRT] for scanning. It was a more or less a shadow puppet theater for a [[GeneralGamingGamepads light-gun controller]].

* ''{{Bakugan}}'': Dan and his friends chat over the Internet and no webcam is ever seen.

* ''{{Lexx}}'': 790's eyes and mouth are screens, cameras, and speakers.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'': The television that extends out of Jenny's stomach that Mrs. Wakeman communicates to her with.

* ''Film/GhostInTheMachine'': The virtual killer is shown travelling through cyberspace, until he stops to observe his victims through a one-way computer screen or similar interface as if it were a glass window.

* ''1408'' averts the trope; the cam is visible when the main character starts a video chat.
* ''AustinPowers'': Dr. Evil tends to do this a lot. He has typical villain ultimatums with various world leaders through closed circuit televisions, yet there are no cameras that would allow him to see anything.

-->-- '''Farce Contact''', a ''StarTrekEnterprise'' parody

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* ''MysteryScienceTheatre3000'': The Hexfield Viewscreen

* ''DannyPhantom'' videochats with Sam and Tucker with no visible webcam.
* In an episode of ''TheFairlyOddparents'' named "Information Stupor Highway", Crocker uses a spyware program to see what's happening in Timmy Turner's room. How does the program do it? By filming the room ''through the monitor'' of Timmy's computer.
* The Comm Links in ''AtomicBetty''.

* The variation also occurs in ''KimPossible'', who is sometimes shown to use the [[CommLinks Kimmunicator]] to call Ron on a regular cell phone. However, the Kimmunicator will show Ron holding the phone up to his ear.
* ''{{The Save-Ums}}'': The Adventure Screen.

* Many of the screens in the ''HalfLife'' universe seem capable of this, particularly the Combine screens.

* In an episode of ''TheFairlyOddparents'', Crocker uses a spyware program to see what's happening in Timmy Turner's room. How does the program do it? By filming the room ''through the monitor'' of Timmy's computer.

Whenever a character talks to another over a video link, often a VideoPhone, each is able to see the other party on his monitor but no camera of any sort is shown. Both parties will look directly at the screen showing the character on the other end, but neither character appears on the screen on the other end to be looking slightly off screen.

** On ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', Ronald D. Moore hatched a plan to replace the tired old viewscreens with a "holocommunicator". This was eventually deemed a failure, as it was glaringly obvious that the 'effect' was two actors in a room. ''Trek'' holograms have always been cleaner than ''Star Wars'' holograms, so flickering or static wouldn't be keeping in canon. They even tried surrounding the holographic actor in blue light (so as to appear to be transmitting from a different room), but the actor confusingly looks like a ghost(!).

Closely related to ComputerEqualsMonitor. With both tropes, ShootTheTelevision might solve many problems.

* The members of the Think Tank in the ''FalloutNewVegas'' DLC ''Old World Blues'' each have three mounted screens displaying their eyes and mouth separately, and are capable of seeing through their "eye screens".

* The variation often occurs on ''TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles''. Krang in the Technodrome is talking to Shredder, who has a small handheld Comm Link. Krang has a huge wall-sized screen in front of him, yet his face fills the entire screen on Shredder's Comm Links. Meanwhile, on Krang's screen, Shredder is shown '''holding the communicator in his hand!'''