Panasonic Japan announced a video-conferencing system dubbed the KX-VC500. It will allow you to use HD-quality screens for communicating. It’s pretty interesting and takes the video conference to a new level. Connections will be made over the web and allow for HD-quality video going both ways.

It doesn’t come with a microphone and a camera however, so you’ll have to use an HD camera of your own choosing. You can use the unit with any HD screen and it has an RGB interface and two HDMI ports. A remote control is included.

A new 3D Webcam we heard about earlier this year is set to make the rounds at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, followed by early January sales here in the United States. It is called the Minoru 3D Webcam and it will price around $90 when released.

The Minoru is said to provide a 3D stereoscopic image because it is a single piece with two cameras spaced roughly the same distance apart aside. Strange looking similarities to Wall-E aside, the developer of this Webcam says users will tend to look into the eyes of the camera as they light up – perhaps to suck more cash out of one’s pocket.

Sony is preparing to take video conferencing in a new direction as it unveils what it is calling the industry’s first 1080i video conferencing system. It is known as the Sony PCS-XG80 and pricing will be set at around $9,000.

The Sony PCS-XG80 will offer video conference participants frame rates of up to 60fps. Besides being able to connect with HD video quality it will also be backwards compatible with standard definition systems. It also offers up some other technical features called BrightFace, Video Annotation, and RF Remote functionality.