Creative Labs inPerson Video Camera
Ever try a video conference for business (legit business, mind you) with a $99 webcam? I didn't think so. Is there a reasonable choice for small businesses or people who work from home that works pretty darn well and is better than a phone call? Yes. Watch this: inPerson camera in action
What do you think? I think people have to start embracing the technology for regular use for a variety of reasons: better for environment, adoption will drive improvements faster, improves communication, and kids love it. Kids? Why does that matter? They are the next generation of users (and innovators). My daughter talks to videos of me that I send to my wife's phone. It's only natural. She's 3 and already has set the bar high for her first phone.
The competition:
Webcams typically have small lenses (and cheap CCD's). They don't get colors right or handle much more than a talking head. Is this the technology of the broadband future- a 320 x 240 window with blurry motion and poor a/v sync before you even send the video over the Internet?
$100K for cisco telepresence is a little much and you still mostly see people from funny angles (oh but they look good from the funny angle- you just can't hardly tell where they are looking).
There are others in-between (duh!) but they are too expensive for a soho or prosumer.
I can't wait til someone figures out how to put the camera behind either a light permeable screen or the processing is so great it recreates what you should look like in real-time. Just like it works on TV- simple, huh?
