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Aaaaah! Webcam!

I just found an open source webcam driver which supports my USB 3com HomeConnect (aka Vicam) in OS X, macam.

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I don't care to take pictures of myself but thanks to a QuickTime component, the camera is supposed to work with many webcam apps, including the iChat AV beta (using another bit of software called iChatUSBCam which enables the use of USB cams with it). I'll probably use it when my sweetie goes back to school. I'll hold the cat up to it.

The picture quality isn't great at some resolutions but it's surprisingly good at 640x480 and the framerate is quite good. This picture of my eye is from the webcam but the blue cast to it was an effect I added. The framerate is better than it was using the official Vicam software under OS 9 (it was always good under Windows). Supporting this camera was quite a feat, considering it had to be completely reverse engineered. They even got the little snapshot button on the top to work!

The camera a too bulky to strap to the back of the cat and the USB cable would cramp his style but I hope to use some motion detection + video capture software to get some living room Mutual of Omaha footage while I'm at work.

Comments (2)

Kevin:

Aw, c'mon! We wanna see live shots of you, um, well, sitting in your chair I guess. On second thought, maybe just hold up the cat or something. Yeah. That'd be better, I think.

;-)

extra88:

As long as I had a daily rotation of, say, 5 pictures of me in different shirts, how would you know it was live?

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