Welcome to the 21st century (webcams)

[netmouse]

Last night I used a webcam for the first time. Well, I'd seen other people on webcams, but I'd never had one aimed at *me* before. The lovely eposia and matt_arnold and I bridged the gap a bit from Michigan to Texas, using her webcam and Matt's (with thanks to Laura for providing same), while also chatting on IM (I was over at Matt's house sharing that camera, if anyone's confused). I guess there was some server trouble or we might have used VOIP as well and had a real video call. The video feed was a little jumpy but on the whole I highly recommend the experience and it seems weird to me (as I thnk about it) that this is the first time I've tried it. All this technology has been around for a while and the cameras are now pretty cheap. And then I started to wonder how many other people have done this...

Have you tried webcam communication?

If so, how was it?

If not, why not?

Comments

[eviljohn.livejournal.com]

I've actually got *two* webcams. One given to me by TechTv when I asked an on-air question, and another I got free after rebate. Am I using either of them? Nope. Don't find any need for them currently. Did have a fishcam running for a while, but now the computer isn't near any tanks.

VoIP is a different thing. Been playing a lot with a Sipura ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter); hook a regular phone in one end and ethernet into the other. We're using it as our pseudo-land line since we only have cell phones. Using Gizmo Project for the service and AFAIK they can also use a webcam, but as I said, haven't really found a need for it, and most of the people I talk to aren't VoIP-enabled yet (or use Skype -blech).

[eviljohn.livejournal.com]

Oh - and if anyone wants the 2nd webcam to use, I'd be happy to extended loan it to them.

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

um... I'd like to borrow it, actually...

:)

[eviljohn.livejournal.com]

Sold! ;)