How to Reach Out and See Someone
For as little as $120, you can turn a Mac or a Pentium PC into a two-way videophone. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Don’t get me wrong. Products such as the Connectix QuickCam ($120), Kodak’s new DVC323 Digital Video Camera ($169) and Intel’s Create & Share Camera Pack ($159) can be a lot of fun and are maybe even useful.
But after participating in several hours of video calls with people around the world, I’ve decided not to give up my trusty old telephone, at least for the time being.
Even though video telephones have been around for more than 30 years, they still have a long way to go. Video images are choppy, and the audio tends to break up, especially when connected via a standard phone line.
Still, the experience of seeing the person you’re talking to can be quite a thrill--especially if it’s someone you really want to see, such as a grandchild or a good friend.
Videoconferencing also has its place in the business world. Obviously, electronic conference systems can’t replace real-life meetings. But with the right software, it’s possible to enhance a video meeting by collaborating on documents.
Until a few years ago, you had to install a special board inside your PC to use one of these devices. But that changed when Connectix introduced the QuickCam for the Mac and PC.
The Mac versions plug into the same Apple desktop bus ports as the keyboard and the mouse. Other companies, including Philips and Intel, offered a variety of videoconferencing systems that required a special board. The early PC versions plugged into the parallel (printer) port.
But recently, Connectix, Intel and Kodak introduced cameras that plug into the universal serial bus, or USB, ports that are included with most PCs built since January 1997. If you have a relatively new Pentium PC, it probably has a USB port. Macs don’t have them yet, but the recently announced iMac, available in August, will.
The USB port transfers data faster than a parallel port, provides power for the unit and frees up the parallel port for the printer. The original version (OSR 1) of Windows 95 doesn’t support USB devices, so you need the OSR 2 version that PC makers have been shipping for the last year or so. You can tell if you have OSR 2 by right-clicking on the “My Computer” icon, selecting Properties and looking for version 4.00.950 B. These products will also work with Windows 98 when it becomes available.
Installing each of the three cameras was pretty easy, but getting them to do something productive is another story. To install the hardware, simply plug the camera into the USB board on the back of the PC and load the CD-ROM. The Kodak and Intel cameras fit nicely atop the monitor. The round Connectix QuickCam, which looks like an overgrown golf ball, sits inside a stand that goes on the top of the monitor. But because it’s not physically attached to its stand, it often slips out of alignment.
All of the cameras can be used to record both moving and still images, and each can also be used to transmit video pictures via the Internet, e-mail or through a direct modem-to-modem connection. Both the Kodak and Intel cameras come with PictureWorks NetCard software that lets you send e-mail with attached “postcards” containing snapshots, short video or voice messages to anyone with an e-mail address--even if they don’t have one of these cameras.
All of the cameras can take still images, but the Kodak unit did the best job. It can take still photos at 640x480 resolution, which is about the same as today’s entry-level still digital cameras and good enough for small images such as head shots or product photos that will be displayed on the Web.
Kodak has two versions of its camera. The DVC300 takes pictures at 15 frames per second, while the more expensive DVC323 operates at 30 frames per second. The more frames per second, the smoother the image.
All three cameras come with Microsoft NetMeeting (which is part of Internet Explorer 4.0 and available free from the Microsoft Web site). This software lets you conduct one-to-one or many-to-many videoconferences via the Internet. NetMeeting is a reasonably sophisticated videoconferencing system that includes a “whiteboard” feature that enables online meeting participants to draw and type simultaneously and see the results.
You can use NetMeeting to make a prearranged videophone call to one or more people, or you can use its directory feature to look for someone who is online and willing to chat.
At standard modem speeds, the video will be choppy and the audio will break up and lag a few seconds behind the picture. A wave of a hand will look like a rapid succession of still shots, rather than a moving video, and a person’s voice won’t be in sync with the movement of his lips.
NetMeeting users who list themselves in its directory can include their location as well as a comment that indicates who the person wants to chat with. Many specified “girls only,” which gave me a pretty clear clue as to how lots of people are using these videophone systems.
QuickCam also comes with a trial version of a conferencing program called CU-SeeMe.
The technology can be used to quickly take still photos for ID badges. Businesses can use it to take and transmit moving or still pictures of products. The cameras can also be used for group training.
Some people use the technology to create a “Web cam” to transmit images via the Internet. A movie theater, for example, could use it to let patrons view the length of a line before they come to the theater. Some radio stations use cameras like these to “Webcast” images to Net users who want to “watch” the radio show. You can even use such a camera to watch your home or spy on your kids.
Lawrence J. Magid can be reached by e-mail at magid@latimes.com. His World Wide Web page is at https://www.larrysworld.com.
