Editor's note: Snaggy and Nitrozac weave humor and tech talk in this article on romancing your video cam. Why not have a few chuckles while you learn how to extend iSight's capabilities with some nifty programs, add-ons, and apps? Enhance your relationship with your iSight -- that's what S and N are here to help you do. ; )
How many times do you do it a month? Oh I know, I know, it used to be every day; sometimes even two or three times a night! Alas, those passionate feelings have probably faded a little with time, and that feverish desire you once felt has moved into the comfortable blahs, or worse, you barely think of each other with techno-lust anymore.
Admit it. You are completely bored with your iSight. Your impulsive, giddy love affair has all but dried up, now that the reality of video chatting has settled in. To paraphrase the band Talking Heads, you may find yourself in front of a beautiful geekosphere, and you may find yourself on some beautiful bandwidth, but you may ask yourself: where is my useful device? Is this my beautiful iSight? How did I get here? My God! What have I done?
You're having a mid-shelf-life crisis.
Here's where we can help. Consider us your personal tech-therapists, willing
to help you rekindle that passion, to bring you and your gorgeous hardware back
together, to show you some new positions, wild variations, and maybe even how
to swing a little with a three-way.
Shocked? Skeptical? Good! Let's get right to the action.
The first thing you'll want to do is spice up good ol' iChatAV. Nothing heats up a love affair like good communication, so how about getting a little creative with your status messages?
You probably already know you can add custom messages to your iChat status by selecting Custom... and then typing in your desired text. And you also may know that if you type in certain emoticons, they will translate into iChat smilies on your Buddy's end of things. For instance, if I typed in "Feeling illogical :-P" into my Status message, my Buddies would see:
(You can see the emoticons that correspond with the iChatAV smiles by mousing
over the individual smiles in an iChatAV message window.) |
OK, so that's kind of cool, but honestly, in this busy, stressed-out world, who has time for manually inputting data? What I think you're looking for is an automated assistant to change that message for you.
iChatStatus is a neat little program
that dynamically updates your iChat status messages. The default script displays
the song you are currently playing in iTunes, but because iChatStatus uses AppleScript
or simple command-line applications to configure the status message, many people
have written their own scripts and added them to the package. There are many
fun and funky scripts, including those that display how many emails you have
waiting to read, current system uptime, Apple's stock price, or if you feel
like living dangerously, the text contents of your clipboard!
Even more scripts can be found in the iChat
Script Collection, which includes one little gem called iTunesWithArtwork.
Besides setting the iChat status message to the song and artist of the current
iTunes track, this script also sets your icon to the album artwork, if it's available.
Now, if only you could add a link to the iTunes music store, you'd have the makings
of a great affiliate program. 
Of course, I must warn you to use these programs with discretion. You never know if your boss is watching his "Big Buddy List," keeping track of the number of times you've listened to Hillary Duff, or the number of hours your current app has been Leisure Suit Larry instead of CodeWarrior.
Of course, it probably wouldn't take you too long to code a workaround, something along the lines of
if applicationName is equal to MySlackerApp then
set StatusMessage to MyFakeStatusAppMessage
While typing sweet nothings to your favorite bosom Buddy, the last thing you want is someone else reading them! Keep your secrets safe from packet sniffers with Intego's ChatBarrier X3. It adds two-way, real-time encryption of text chats using military-grade, 512-bit encryption. Only a user who also has ChatBarrier installed, and to whom you send a message, will be able to decrypt your confidential trysts of text. After 30 days, the demo version can still be used for free to decrypt messages, so if you're in a one-way relationship, and your Buddy doesn't pony up for the registration fee, at least your secrets will still be safe.
By default, iChatAV comes with sixteen smilies that you can use to accent your text, and while these are fun, you're probably looking for more ways to illustrate your true feelings. iChat Smileys 2.1 provides just that, adding 72 extra smilies to your arsenal!
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The only downside is that your correspondents must also have the pack installed in order to see the new smilies, or you're just smiling at yourself. There's also a separate un-installer, in case you suddenly find yourself suffering from a smilie overdose.
Feeling creative? Make your own smilies! iChat
Emotimaker is a free program that allows you to add custom smilies to
iChat, something that normally isn't possible without modifying system files.
It provides a relatively simple interface for creating and editing collections
of smilies called "smileypacks." You can choose the name, the ASCII
representation, and the image for an unlimited number of smilies in each
smileypack. Once you're finished perfecting your smilies, you can install
them into iChat with just a click. Again, the downside to all of this creative
expression is that unless you share your smileypacks and train your Buddies
to install them, the fact that you are a Smilie Genius will go unnoticed.
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Tired of seeing the same old face in the morning? Perhaps it's time to change your avatar! A little role-playing can work wonders towards rekindling some tech passion.
Now, avatars are a touchy topic, as everyone has their own preferences and fetishes. Some will remain loyal to the same pixels all of their virtual lives, while others prefer multiple avatars from all walks of iLife. Some prefer avatars that represent their gender, others swing both ways and don't see gender as a limitation. It's really up to you, and how comfortable you feel with your virtual identity, but don't be afraid to strip yourself of your inhibitions and try something new, even if it's just the privacy of your closed network.
There are many places you can find general avatars, (including IconHell.com, Abbey's Free AIM Buddy Icons, and AIM Today Buddy Icons), but in a search of the Web, we couldn't seem to find a web site dedicated exclusively to iChatAV avatars. To help alleviate this, Nitrozac and I have created a series of avatars featuring some of the characters that appear in the Joy of Tech
comic. Several of them have different versions, so you can choose the avatar
expression that suits your mood. We've also include our hilarious "Disturb-a-tars:"
avatars so unattractive, your online friends will keep away, and you can get
more work done.
Just a few of our Joy
of Tech iChat avatars! |
Looking for a bit of avatar action? Check out iChat Streaming Icon, a cool application that adds streaming video from your iSight camera to your buddy icon. Suddenly, your buddy avatar becomes a tiny real-time video conference. No need to change to your status message; when you are away, your buddies can see you really are away!
iChat Streaming Icon can also read many file formats, from simple animated
.gifs to .avi or .mov files, so if you don't have a camera, you can still get
in on the fun. This is one of those crazy apps that spreads like wildfire, as
your friends demand to know, "How the heck are you doing that?" There
are a few downsides to the app: it won't stream an avatar over a Rendezvous
network, and it will tax your computer's processor, but such is the price of
geek glee.
 |
Feel like heating things up with some aural action? iChatter from eCamm adds voice synthesis to iChat. Install this nifty program and you can hear your messages spoken aloud via Mac OS X's built-in speech technology. This may seem a little goofy, and it is, but for Universal Access users, this can be an insanely great feature.
If your Buddies are also running iChatter, they can hear the voice you've selected as your own when you message them. iChatter can translate acronyms and emoticons into phrases, and its control panel gives you access to all kind of adjustments to the voices, including pitch and tempo. With a bit of tweaking, even Princess can sound like a sexy Barry White. Just be careful who is within earshot, and don't type anything you wouldn't want to say out loud!
Nitrozac and I work on different floors here at Geek Culture Headquarters, so we often use iChatAV's Rendezvous to discuss our work. One problem we used to run into was when one of us forgot to log into Rendezvous. This resulted in the terrifying prospect of having to actually leave the computer and walk to the other's office! Luckily, our geeky buddy DigitalBill came to our rescue with a simple little AppleScript that automatically fires up iChatAV and logs us into Rendezvous when we start up our computers.
Here's the code:
tell application "iChat"
activate
set ren to "Rendezvous"
log in service ren
end tell
or, if you are looking for a quickie, here's the compiled script: Snaggyvous.app.
Just add it to your Startup Items (via Control Panel -> Accounts -> Startup Items).
If you uncheck the "When iChat opens, automatically log in" setting
in your iChat preferences, this script will only log you into your Rendezvous
messaging network. It's a handy feature if you're busy at work and don't have
time to procrastinate with your AIM Buddies. Yes I know, who could possible
imagine working under such barbaric conditions?
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OK, enough of this simple stuff. You're probably not an iChat virgin and are looking for a something a little more hardcore to rekindle your techno-lust.
Like any other, your relationship with your iSight can probably benefit from a little primping, after all, what geek doesn't find dressing up their hardware with accessories a turn on? Don't be embarrassed or shy; this is perfectly natural and a part of geek love.
Most geeks will tell you that glasses are in fact a sexy addition to a significant other's wardrobe, and the same is true with the iSight. Although not designed specifically to accept additional lenses, the iSight's optics are very forgiving, so don't be afraid to experiment a little. If you already have some 37mm lenses in your stable, Kaidan makes a convenient lens adapter for the iSight. If you have other sizes of filters or lenses, you can easily make your own with a piece of tubing, some duct tape, and a bit of creativity. (See, I told you this would be sexy!)
If you haven't already, be sure check out our article, "You Sexy Thing, Looking Good on iSight," which includes many tips and tricks on using filters and lenses, including a lens-holder hack for the iSight, and details about how to set up your camera to make you look as great as possible.
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Related Reading 
The Best of The Joy of Tech |
They say being flexible can really add to your love life, and as a happy owner of a SightFlex, I'd have to agree. This iSight accessory from MacMice puts your camera at the end of a flexible gooseneck, one that can be twisted and bent into pretty much any shape you'd like. No more clamps, lost plastic connectors, or any of the other frustrations associated with the standard iSight mounts. It adds a degree of freedom to your iSight that is missing from Apple's mounts, and this ability to easily point your camera anywhere greatly enhances the iSight experience. But enough of me trying to bend your will; if you are you are the curious type, you can read more about the SightFlex in my review.
If you are ever in need of some mood lighting, then the Griffin SightLight may be just the ticket for you. The SightLight is a Firewire-powered accessory that slips over the iSight, with the goal of shedding some light on the subject in front of the camera. And illuminate it does! If you've ever wanted to add a touch of glamour to your video conferencing, as if you are appearing on the nightly TV news or iChatting by the glare by your paparazzi's lights, then this accessory is for you. But if you do have one, it's probably not something you'd want to leave turned on, unless of course you feel comfortable enduring police interrogation techniques.
Since the recent iSight firmware update, which did wonders for the iSight's
low-light capabilities, chances are you probably won't need an SightLight except
in cases of extremely low light. However, the SightLight does turn out
to be handy in a few other ways. You don't have to attach it to an iSight.
In fact, it's a Firewire-powered illumination source in its own right. Invaluable
in dark dingy hotel rooms, or during power failures when all you have time for
is to grab your laptop. (You obviously have your priorities straight. )
Or, if you ever find yourself stranded in the wilderness with just your PowerBook
and a SightLight, it will serve as a powerful search and rescue beacon. In a
worst case scenario, if this article doesn't help rekindle you and your camera's
relationship, you can always turn your unused iSight into a stylish desk lamp.
Griffin's SightLight: iSight accessory or Borg fashion? |
Here's where things get really kinky. Imagine stumbling across someone who is in front of their Mac flapping their arms, moving their body in strange gyrations, and reaching out into thin air to grab things. No, you haven't come across a rare and undocumented Mac geek mating ritual, you've encountered a ToySighter.
ToySight is a relatively new app from UK developers StrangeFlavour. It uses an iSight, or other video camera, to put you in the middle of the gaming action. Stand in front of the camera, choose one of the nine games included in the package, and prepare to get busy. Move your hands to aim your weapons, wave your arms up and down to activate sliders, flap your arms and soar through a virtual sky.
ToySight developer Aaron plays The Plank! |
In ToyWar, you can even sample real objects and add them into the games. ToySight takes a snap of what it sees in the camera (they recommend a real toy) and places it in an arena, where it battles another toy supplied by a friend. Or you can be like me and use your face as a weapon:
Is The Man with the X-Ray Vision invincible? |
ToySight is a hoot to play, increases the usability of your iSight, and it
even has the side benefit of giving you an upper body workout. Are you going
to feel a little goofy playing it? Perhaps, but don't worry, your iSight isn't
going to reveal your deep, dark, dorky secrets. Are you going to have a great
time? Definitely!
I suspect ToySight to be just the first of many iSight-tailored apps that will appear as more developers play with the hardware. Imagine hooking up your iSight and playing a virtual GarageBand drum kit, or getting in shape with DDR-style workout programs.
Many people want to use their iSight as a simple video camera, and there are several apps available that will let you do this, including QuickTime Broadcaster, iVeZeen, and iMovie. My favorite, however, is MacMice's GCam, a free way to enhance your iSight's capabilities. Like many of these kinds of apps, GCam runs on top of the Apple QuickTime engine, so all of the file format and compression features of QuickTime are available when viewing, recording, and saving your clips (depending upon whether you use QuickTime or QuickTime Pro).
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Creating simple QuickTime movies really enhances your iSight's capabilities and can be a lot of fun. For instance, we live in the 21st century now, so why are you still sending boring text emails? Make your certain someone's digital day by delivering a five-second QuickTime love letter. With a little compression, you can easily make the .mov's size fit any email inbox. (As Bill Gates used to say, 640K should be enough.)
Derrick Story has some great articles on working with video and the iSight, including "Making Movies with the Apple iSight," and "More iSight Video Tricks."
If you don't have a digital camera handy, you can capture sketches, business cards, photos, and other scenes using your iSight and the program iStill. Although the image quality here is limited by the resolution of the iSight, the great thing about iStill is that it gives you a quick and easy way to capture images or text. Think of it as turning your iSight into a handheld scanner. This is particularly handy for those on the road, whether it be for capturing a document or a sample, or sending an idea back to the office.
The cool thing about iStill is that you can adjust all aspects of the iSight's feed, including Saturation, Brightness, Sharpen, and most importantly, Focus. These are controls that I wish we had access to in iChatAV, for although the iSight's fully automatic operation is convenient in most cases, in others, it can be downright annoying. Luckily, third party developers like Chilton Webb are giving us access to these functions via their programs. They make the iSight just that much more powerful.
iStill captures a panel from our hip Joy
of Tech book. |
One of the coolest programs you can use with your iSight is iStopmotion, by Boinx Software. It's a remarkably powerful and easy-to-use app you can use to create stop-motion animation or time-lapse movies. It also features a voice activation feature, which allows you to trigger image captures with a voice command. Extremely convenient, if there's only one of you bending and manipulating your Barbie doll or Geek Action Figure.
iStopmotion: blooming marvelous! |
Here's a little time lapse I created with iStopMotion while
writing this article. (QuickTime, 5.8MB) |
iStopMotion is a ton of fun, and it can turn even your most boring day into an action movie. It can also can be used in professional environments, with cameras other than the iSight to produce very sophisticated results. Check out the free seven-day demo, and treat yourself and your iSight to the thrill of capturing fleeting intervals of chronology. It'll be one lapse of time you probably won't forget.
Everyone wants to feel like they are in a secure relationship, and here's where your iSight can prove to be a most loyal partner. No, I'm not suggestion spying on anyone, but I will offer a few ways you can reinforce your own personal force field.
Tired of people sneaking up and looking over your shoulder? Set up your camera
as a boss detector, looking behind you or down the hall. It's a slacker's first
defense!
You have a peephole, right? I'm talking about the kind in your front door. Hate having to actually get up from your computer to peer through it? Here's where you can turn your iSight into the ultimate doorman. Mount your iSight to peer through the peephole, and stream that image via webcam software, such as Evocam, to your desktop! You will never miss an important pizza delivery again!
No, it's not a pesky bill collector, it's your friendly neighborhood propeller-beanie
salesman! Thank goodness! |
There comes a time where you may want to have a record of a certain special iChatAV session. I searched high and low for an easy way to record a video chat, and I did find one solution, Ambrosia's Snapz Pro X 2. It's said to effortlessly record full-motion video of anything on your screen, and in theory, it's powerful software. Movie captures are available with many frame-rate and compression options, and even three different camera modes.
In my experience however, it was a little more than effortless. I had several
problems installing the app on my older dual G4, including it wiping out my
start-up items.
Several kernel panics later, I moved on to a newer G4, and had better luck
(I was able to record a QuickTime of an iChat), but in the end, still had issues
with sound not recording properly. To be fair, I've heard others have
had great success with Snapz Pro X 2, and if you want to record your video
chats it seems to be the only option currently available (other than setting
up a video camera to record your screen), so if you're willing to put up with
a bit of a learning curve, and perhaps some troubleshooting and cursing, check
out the 15-day demo.
Is one iSight just not enough for you? If you're like most geeks, you've probably fantasized a little about having two iSights at the same time. But are you geek enough to handle multiple iSights? I think you are, especially with the help of an apps such as SecuritySpy and EvoCam.
SecuritySpy is a multi-camera surveillance application that has all the bells and whistles you can possibly imagine. It can receive data from an unlimited number of cameras, both local and network-based, and features goodies like motion detection, time lapse, camera pan/tilt/zoom control, and a Remote Viewing feature that allows you to access your surveillance system over the Internet or a local network. If you've ever wanted to secure your own personal Fort Knox, then this app is the way to go.
EvoCam is a webcam application, with a great user interface and many powerful features such as motion sensors, the ability to create time-lapse movies, and support for multiple cameras. Using multiple cameras is an easy way to make your webcam twice as entertaining. If you have two or more cameras, you can put them all in one window, or create a separate window for each camera. Each window has its own settings, and operates independently of other windows, so you can even send the webcam data to different pages or servers.
Most cat owners agree: you can never have enough security cams on
your cat. |
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Feeling a little restless? Bored with your Buddies? Seeking new exciting strangers to iChat with? Then check out one of several iChat meeting places, including iChatfinder.com, MyiSight.com, or Seeser.org. These sites are databases of iChatAV users that you can browse through and search for potential partners by age, sex, location, and more, as well as read profiles and see who is currently online. Some brave souls even post their pictures so you can get a preview before committing to a video stream. The vast majority of these folks are guys seeking girls, so if you are female, at least virtually, be forewarned that you will probably be swarmed with lovelorn geeks. And for those seeking same-sex Buddies, there's iChatgay.com.
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There may come a time in your digital life when you desire to include multiple
people in a chat, an iChatAV orgy so to speak, but to your dismay, iChat only
lets you connect with one video partner at a time. How prudish! Currently, your
only course of action is to go with a third-party solution, such as iVisit.
Besides the lure of group videoconferencing, iVisit also offers compatibility
with Windows users and an OS 9 version, and will work on dialup connections. iVisit
Lite is free (after required registration), so it may be the ticket if you need
to connect with members of different OSes, but if you're hoping for the ease
of use or the quality of iChatAV, you'll be disappointed. The good news is Apple has been listening to us whiny geeks; the next version of
iChat can accommodate audio conferences with up to ten participants,
and video conferencing for four! Ooo la la, go get' em Tiger! 
Everyone has their own fetishes, and when it comes to the iSight, mine is video feedback. Feedback is what occurs when a video camera is pointed to its display and starts picking up its own live image. Visual loops begin to occur, and soon generate an assortment of swirling, spinning, and colorful shapes.
Gimme
some feedback! |
And what is the attraction of all this psychedelia? It's pure selfish pleasure;
to bask in the geeky glow of constantly changing shapes and colors, and to explore
the mind-bending characteristics of Infinity. In other words, to freak yourself
out.
If you've never tried feedback, give it a go! Don't worry, your iSight won't go blind. Point your camera at a live feed and work yourself up to the fireworks. Try experimenting a little; turn your monitor brightness down, set the contrast higher than normal. Zoom the camera in and out and rotate it slightly. Try sticking your fingers into the mix. Go wild!
Feedback generation is usually best if you lock the iSight's focus using an app such as iStopmotion, iVeZeen, or GCam. If your focus isn't locked, and you hear your camera doing the focus shuffle (adjusting its focus back and forth quickly), than perhaps it is best to point it away from the screen to avoid over-taxing the mechanism. Be sure to turn down your computer's sound so that you don't get audio feedback, which is far less interesting then the video variety.
Video feedback can also be used to create fractal patterns, which result from the repetition of a simple transformation. This is actually pretty cool and scientific in its own funky way; at least, that's what you can tell anyone who catches you feedbacking yourself. For those of you who fall hopelessly into the blissful abyss of video feedback, and seek to be Master of Your Chaotic Domain, there are all kinds of web resources on this, including The Ultimate Video Feedback Page.
Developer Aaron Fothergill from Strange Flavour says:
"I use my iSight to take snapshots of things when I'm sending emails. We've also found that the quality over iChatAV is just about enough to be able to point the iSight at a screen to show stuff when doing tech support without Apple Remote Desktop."
Jon Maddox, web developer, uses his iSight as a webcam.
"Evological’s EvoCam can stream your iSight using its own web server or by uploading individual images to your web site via FTP. It’s easy to set up: open EvoCam and click on ‘Enable built-in web server’ and your iSight is now streaming to the world. Send your friends to http://yourIpAddress:8080/webcam.html and they can spy on you while you play -- err ... work.
Now, the real fun is making your webcam available from your web site. Therein lies the problem. Your webcam is streaming from your home computer, but your web site is hosted by a company in another city. Using a combination of HTML, an iFrame, and a little creativity, you can have your iSight streaming directly from your web site. The trick is the iFrame, a frame that can be used the middle of your page content. Set thesrcproperty of the iFrame to the address that you connected to earlier. By doing that, you're telling the iFrame to use whatever content is at that address inside of the iFrame. Voila: now your iSight at home is now streaming from your hosted web site. Setting up dynamic DNS for your dynamic home IP address makes everything seamless and keeps your webcam from going offline just because your IP has changed.
Use a little creativity to dress it up like I've done."
I've tried my best to save your iSight relationship, but if there're too many
failed expectations and tech-baggage, sometimes you just have to admit irreconcilable
differences and use the professional
services of eBay. On the bright side of breakups, there's a lot of geeks
in the sea, and chances are someone will love your former flame for what she
is, and give her the kind of relationship she deserves. Plus, you never know
who you'll bump into while cruising the listings.
But we hope you'll never take such drastic steps. You both have a lot to offer each other, and you've invested so much time and energy into the relationship already, that I do hope you will try to work things out. Focus on the good points and the strengths, rather than your perceived limitations of each other, and you'll be well on the way to rekindling your iSight passion.
At least until the iSight II is released.
O'Reilly & Associates published The Best of the Joy of Tech in November 2003.
Nitrozac and Snaggy (a.k.a. Liza Schmalcel and Bruce Evans) are the authors of The Best of the Joy of Tech, and the creators of GeekCulture.com: home of The Joy of Tech comic, thriving online community, and purveryor of fine propeller beanies.
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Copyright © 2007 O'Reilly Media, Inc.