 |
|
Webcam, next to being
there
"I realized that with just a little money, I could set my mother and myself up with PC cameras and we could talk to each other and see each other over the Internet," Austin told the German Press Agency DPA. "It was like a light going off in my head; I realised I could have been doing this much sooner," he said. He was right. Thanks to advances in tiny video cameras — otherwise known as Webcams — and the proliferation of high-speed Internet connections, videoconferencing over the Internet has arrived. But it’s possible even with standard dial-up connections, as well. Webcams are nothing more than small, oddly-shaped cameras about the size of a tennis ball that sit atop your desktop and stare back at you, transmitting a live or still image of your face to someone online. When both parties in an online conversation have a Webcam, you’re in business. Many Webcams have built-in microphones that allow you to speak naturally, conducting a true videoconference. How do you get started? You may already be able to satisfy many of the requirements of sending your face as well as your voice over the Internet. You’ll need a recent-vintage computer with USB or FireWire ports, a reasonably fast Internet connection — the faster the better — as well as someone you’d like to see and talk to. The latest version of the popular instant messaging tool Windows Messenger (http://messenger.msn.com), delivered for free with Windows XP Home and Professional versions and available for free online, supports Webcam s automatically. Yahoo! messenger (http://messenger.yahoo.com) does, as well. Most Webcams come with communications software. But using a messenger tool may be handier, since both parties can easily download and use the software, regardless of whether a camera is hooked up to the PC or not. If only one party has a Webcam, a live video image can still be transmitted to the other party, so long as both have compatible software or instant messaging tools. Webcams range in price from $ 30 to 80, with the higher-priced models generally offering better picture quality. Popular and highly-rated recent models include Logitech’s Quickcam Pro 4000 (www.logitech.com), the Philips ToUcam Pro (www.pc-cameras.philips.com), Orange Micro’s iBot (www.orangemicro.com/ibot.html), and Intel’s Home PC Camera (www.intel.com/pccamera). When looking for a Webcam , pay particular attention to the way that it connects to your PC. Today’s best Webcams connect either to an available USB or FireWire port. FireWire is generally faster, but not all recent PCs contain FireWire ports. Often, you’ll have to purchase a FireWire PCI card for your PC in order to supply the unit with FireWire ports. That leaves most persons looking for USB Webcams . The latest Webcams support USB 2.0, the newest connectivity standard that rivals FireWire in speed. However, in order to gain the full benefit of a USB 2.0-enabled Webcam, the ports in your PC must support the 2.0 standard, and you must be using Windows XP service pack 1. The original Windows XP, as well as previous versions of Windows, does not support USB 2.0. It’s important to think about how your Webcam will connect to your PC because transmitting a video image means transferring a lot of data, so Webcams that offer faster connections to your PC will be better. Hooking up a Webcam to your PC is generally a simple affair. Assuming you have a recent version of Windows that offers plug and play compatibility, about all you’ll need to do is plug the Webcam into your computer, load any driver software that came with the Webcam, and then fire up your instant messenger to begin transferring images. "The Webcam is the closest I’ve come to using a video telephone," Austin says. Indeed, many of the Webcams on the market today have a built-in microphone, which is quite useful. For not only will you be able to send a live video of yourself, but you’ll also be able to talk and transmit your voice as well. If your Webcam does not come with a built-in microphone, you can still transmit your voice over the Internet by using a headset microphone that you can plug into your computer’s sound card. Webcams have been around
for a long time, of course. But in the past, most of the press about
them has Using the newer, higher
quality Webcams to fashion a kind of video telephone using the Internet,
however, just may stick.
|
||||||
 |
||||||
SEEING
and talking to someone is the next best thing to being there. That’s
the idea behind Webcams , and the idea may finally be evolving into
reality. That’s what graduate student Samuel Austin discovered
recently. The Virginia-based environmental science student had been
using the Internet for months to communicate with his mother each day
using a standard instant messaging tool. When he upgraded his operating
system recently, though, he noticed that the new version of the instant
messenger included a "camera" option, which allowed him to
hook up an inexpensive camera to his PC and transmit a video of himself
to anyone.