I’ve had a web camera on top of whatever computer(s) for years, but until recently I really haven’t used them that often. Lately, more applications have me dusting off these cams and trying some stuff out. My favs on the Mac– Delicious Library and iStopMotion. On the PC side, I use TinCam on some of my XP based robots running around the house. And, while this isn’t out yet, I really like this way to cheat at jigsaw puzzles using a webcam and Python. I don’t have the EyeToy for PS2, but it apparently works well as a web cam on a PC. As a project for the magazine, I’m looking in to looping the last 10 seconds of video from my iSight and projecting that on to a wall as a time delayed mirror. When you try on clothes you can see what you look like from behind. So, if you have a web cam- what are the apps you use? Or what would you like to have webcams do that they do not now? Post up in the comments.
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iVeZeen (formerly iRecordNow by Boinx Software) works great for recording video snippets for use on the web or in productions.
I have to disagree with the other comment on iVeZeen. There really isn’t much use for this shareware app if you have imovieHD.
I would like to see a video camera that attaches to my ipod and allows me to burn video to my ipod hard disk. That would be cool.
This is what I did with my iSight.
Otherwise it has been collecting dust… other than for Delicious Library, which now tempts me to buy more things just for the gratification of scanning and indexing. *sigh*
EffecTV is a very cool app for Linux that does realtime video effects. There are a ton of plugins that can do some very cool transformations like the “Predator” effect or the hologram effect from Star Wars. You can also use EffecTV with video loop back software to place it in between your webcam and your videoconferencing software.
My friend used GrabboCam video surveillance software for BeOS to monitor a timed parking space near his office. When someone would park in the spot, they would turn on GrabboCam and have it email them a picture if someone came near the parking space. They could then look at the picture and see if their car’s tire had been marked by a parking enforcement person. If not, they didn’t need to move the car yet.
You could do the same thing with Motion for Linux, TinCam for Windows, or BTV for Mac OS.
The Flo Control Project uses a webcam to do facial recognition as authentication to open a cat door for the family cat. If the cat has something in its mouth or some other animal approaches the door, it does not open. If the cat approaches with nothing in its mouth, then the door unlocks.
This hack for the Eye Toy does most definately work for the PC. Took me about 5 minutes to make the change.
And while setting up the webcam with Trillian Pro, I selected the wrong video input (TV Tuner) and managed to stream TV to my work machine from home! That one gets filed under ‘need to know’ the next time the big game is on.
I recently hacked apart an $18.00 D-Link DSB-C300 webcam and married it to my Meade ETX-70 Telescope. Currently I’m able to control the telescope over my network via the Meade astronomy client software, and FTP the images to my server. I’d like to be able to controll both the camera and telescope from anywhere on the Net, without having to run the client software. I’d also like to write a stepper motor program for a Basic Stamp to control the telescopes focus from the net. Any suggestions?