Various human factors experiments were carried out aiming at investigating to what extent assumed deficiencies of current videocommunications systems can be overcome by employing advanced image technologies. Deficiencies that are dealt with are the lack of spatial impression, limitations in the possibility of addressing the interlocutors individually by non-verbal signals, and difficulties in terms of interpersonal impression formation. Results showed that spatial impression can be enhanced significantly by stereoscopy, that reducing eye-contact angles can improve the recognisability of non-verbal signals, and that a natural-size representation of interlocutors leads to a high degree of ‘telepresence’ and facilitates impression formation. In trying to identify those human factors deficiencies of videoconferencing systems the reduction of which can be expected to increase the uptake of videoconferencing services, the lack of spatial impression and difficulties in impression formation are the most promising candidates.