10 uses for an iSight

The iSight, Apples ubiquitous personal camera has been around for well nigh half a decade now, and in it's recent incarnations has been built-in to iMacs and the Macbook series. Rumors abound of a new Cinema Display with the iSight included also.

All of this begs the question though: who uses the iSight for actual video chat, other than 16 and 50 year olds exchanging images of their respectively pale or pasty appendages?

Video chat is still so quirky and slow that it serves no purpose for anything other than casual conversations. And since most internet providers offer an absurdly low upload speed, the lag and choppiness makes an iChat seem more like a stop action short film than a conversation.

That being said, there are still numerous ways you can put that iSight to use.

  • Security and surveillance
  • Webcam and Streaming video
  • Digital camera w/ effects
  • Inventory your stuff
  • Screen-saver
  • Time-Lapse Movies
  • Gaming
  • Scanning Documents
  • Teaching or tutorials
  • Making people nervous

Security and Surveillance

There are tons of apps out there that will allow you to use your iSight as a security device, but none is cooler than AlertU, which detects when your Mac has been moved and if configured to do so, will take a snapshot of the perpetrator and send it to you.
It also has an alarm, so if you want to walk away from your system for a moment while in public, it will scream for help. :)

Very, very cool stuff:

Camera Panel

In the same vein as iAlertU is MacLoJack, which 'phones home' if you report the system stolen and then transmits a great deal of data back, including iSight snapshots. I like this one because it allows you to run the server on your own (perfect for businesses).

Also cool is this set of scripts, which provide you the ability to take a picture if someone attempts to login to your system and fails. Snapshots are saved locally, so you can see if someone is messing with your Mac.

Webcam and Streaming

Need to keep an eye on the kids in the backyard, or the baby in the crib? How about showing the world what your cat is doing all day long? Or maybe you want to strip for Japanese men...

Whatever your needs, you can use your iSight to stream live video from your Mac to anywhere in the world. Since it is a one-sided transmission and is typically buffered, the throughput is better, and less shaky than a video chat.

There are two ways to do this: as a webcam, which sends still photos on a schedule, or as a streaming cam, which sends live (a couple seconds behind perhaps) video to a website.

For stills, some of the better apps for this include Cam2Web, iSightWeb and CamSpinner.

If you need to send live video out, take a look at ShowMacster, which also allows you to watch movies with another user, share your desktop and do slideshows. There is also EvoCam, which even includes a built-in web server.
Of course, if you just want to send out raw, streaming video then all you need is a freebie from Apple called QuickTime Broadcaster, which harnesses the iSight and QuickTime to do some pretty cool stuff for those who want to show the world something important. Or stupid. Or illegal in 31 states.

Digital camera w/ effects

Wait, what? You can use a webcam to take pictures? Well I'll be...what will those guys think of next? Shipping with built-in iSight machines for a while now is the awesome app PhotoBooth, which lets you take snapshots of anything in the range of your iSight, then apply a goofy filter to it. See:

Photo 8

Photo 7

Photo 6

Photo 9

Fun for parties, small groups of children or messing with old people.

You can, of course, use PhotoBooth for normal photos also, which is handy for those times you need a quick picture of yourself or your office or anything else you can see with the iSight.

Inventory your stuff

This one is awesome. Using an app from Delicious Monster called 'Delicious Library', you can inventory any and everything you own. Some items, such as books, CDs, DVDs can have their barcodes scanned and the app will automatically grab their pertinent details from online services and pre-populate the data for you. This function integrates with Address Book and iCal to allow you to 'check out' media to others.

Library-Cover-Desktop

But an even more important use would have to be creating a custom library of household items, such as jewelry or electronics. You take a snapshot, enter in important data about them (date purchased, value, etc.) and you have an instant record of your valuables. Back that up to disc or upload it somewhere for instant proof of ownership in case of an accident or theft.

What would be even cooler would be if Delicious Library could work with iPhoto and iWeb to create a gallery type page for online perusal by friends or customers. Maybe that will be in the next version, or a 'Business Edition'. Hmmm...

Screen-saver

Ok, perhaps a little pointless, but certainly cool. using these apps, your iSight becomes a live screen-saver module. Whatever passes in front of the camera shows on screen. Some of them even include effects you can use to make the activity more interesting. Check out SightSaver or Boinx MiracleSight.

But if you have a special someone that you are stalking, how better to creep them out than by using HeartThrob to grab your picture, superimpose it into floating hearts and turn it into a screen-saver? It's great for both Valentines Day and as evidence in most courts of law!

Heartthrobss Reg

Time-Lapse Movies

This one is pretty fun also. Use software like iStopMotion to record video from your iSight and make it a stop motion film, as seen in these examples.

It's amazing what this software in conjunction with your stable and steady iSight can do!

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