Entries tagged with webcam - Channel 10

New LifeCams Have Arrived!

sarahintampa — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:42:00 GMT

Microsoft recently announced two new LifeCams that join the lineup of webcams designed for users of Windows PCs: the LifeCam Show and the LifeCam VX-5500. The LifeCam Show is an ultrathin camera with a 2.0MP sensor and three different attachment options – a laptop clip, a desktop stand, and an attachment disk. This one is the more expensive of the two at $99.95. The LifeCam VX-5500 is only $59.95 and features a VGA sensor with great low-light performance. It also has interchangeable colored faceplates in red, white, and blue (how patriotic!).

By combining these cameras with Windows Live Messenger, you can can engage in live video chats with your friends and family at any time. And if your friends aren’t available online (or if they live on the other side of the globe and you don’t want to wake them!), you can always record a video message using the new Video Messages site at http://videomessages.live.com.

Want to buy one now? Both are available from the new Microsoft Store.

Create Dynamic Display Pictures In Messenger

sarahintampa — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:08:00 GMT

From Windows Live Chronicles, I just learned another great trick for use in the latest version of Windows Live Messenger, v9.0 beta. In this newest version of Live Messenger you have the option to create your own, dynamic display picture by using your webcam. To do so, go into Tools –> Change Display Picture. You’ll see a new option (a button) that reads “Webcam Snapshot.” Select this button and you can record a quick snapshot of you in motion. Make a funny expression, hold up a sign, whatever, then click “Save” when you’re finished recording. The new video snapshot will then become available to choose from among all the other static images already available in Messenger. Set the new video as your display picture and from then on, your friends will see that when they’re IM’ing you in Messenger. To view a quick demo of this in action, check out this video on Soapbox.

Use Any Object as a Controller With Cam-Trax

sarahintampa — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:39:00 GMT

Cam-Trax lets you play any PC game you want using almost any object you can find as a game controller - you just need to have a PC and a webcam to do so. The software uses the webcam to scan the object you’re holding and then the object can be used to control your game! (See it in action here). Crazy! What’s even crazier is that I just discovered that the Xbox 360 can do this, too, but not many people know about it. The Xbox can be paired with a camera and through XNA, casual game designers can experiment with their ideas. In fact, here are a couple of videos of people doing the machine vision thing with their Xbox: video 1, video 2. Want to give that a try yourself, this guy documented some of the techie details on how to access the elusive camera frame buffer. The documentation is available as a download here. Now, who’s got a machine vision system that works with XNA?