Posted 06/22/09 at 09:00:30 AM by Paul Lilly

Guaranteed to help close the deal during your next video conference (just maybe not in your favor), you can now transform your mug to that of Optimus Prime without investing in any head gear. It's all made possible through the wonders of augmented reality, with a little help from www.weareautobots.com.

The Active X applet takes over your webcam and goes to work using face and eye detection to render a 3D head of Optimus Prime around your noggin. It's just like all those other parlor tricks that shipped with your webcam's software, only prancing around as Optimus Prime is a little cooler than wearing a digital pirate patch or bobbing up and down with a fish face.

Read More

Posted 03/12/09 at 09:50:13 AM by Paul Lilly

If all you can remember getting with your baseball cards is a stick of hardened bubble gum, then maybe you were born into the wrong generation. Or the right one, depending on your outlook. Today's baseball card collectors know nothing of the chewy goodness that came with the hobby years ago, and instead are being encouraged to sit in front of their webcam to bring their cards to life.

It's all part of Topps' new 3D Live series. Place one of the special cards in front of a webcam and a three-dimensional avatar of the player appears on the computer screen. As you rotate the card, so too does the avatar. By going to ToppsTown.com, you can play a catching or batting game with the cards you acquire. There's a term for this meshing of real-world and computer generated data, and it's called "augmented reality."

"This is the 'Beam me up, Scotty' version of a baseball card that will get kids to buy more," said Steve Grimes, chief digital officer at Topps. "We see this baseball season as a redefining moment for us."

And not a moment too soon, either. The sports trading card business has plummeted from a $1 billion per year business to a comparatively small $200 million per year. Technology is seen as hurting the industry, as collectors can easily and quickly look up sports facts online for any player.

On a related note, if you happen to score a 3D Live card of Manny Ramirez and find that his avatar refuses to play on your PC, nothing is amiss - it's just Manny being Manny.

Read More

Posted 01/16/09 at 09:18:48 AM by Paul Lilly

Hawaii residents can now visit their physician without ever leaving their home. It's not that house calls are making a comeback, but the 50th state becomes the first one to offer online physician visits. Available 24/7, ailing patients and hypochondriacs alike can spend one-on-one time with a doctor over IE7 or Firefox 2 and above, and even load up a webcam to show exactly what that nasty infection looks like.

Hawaiians insured through HMSA (Hawaii Medical Service Association, the state's largest insurer) are charged a flat $10 fee for a 10 minute online visit, while non-members pay $45. In return, doctors are instructed to apply the same standards of care and to address only issues that can adequately be handled over the phone or web. Prescriptions can also be written, if there's a definitive diagnosis during the 10-minute visit. But while this new practice will cut down the number of people cluttering emergency rooms, proponents warn that it's not a replacement for real emergencies.

"I don't think this situation can completely replace one-on-one doctor's visits," said Michelle Shimizu, a family practice doctor who has been helping test the system. "It's an adjunct to that."

For the most part, doctors receive $25 for each session, an amount which "has been received tremendously," according to HMSA marketing VP Michael Stollar. 

Would you feel comfortable visiting your doctor online? Hit the jump and post your thoughts.

Read More

Posted 10/30/08 at 03:04:26 PM by Andy Salisbury

When most people think of Logitech the first thing that comes to mind is hardware. Webcams, mice, keyboards, just about anything that you can consider a peripheral. But all that is about to change thanks to their latest acquisition, SightSpeed, which they hope will take them right into the software game.

So what’s it cost to for a hardware giant, such as Logitech, to get their fingers deep into the software game? As it turns out, only $30 million in cash (the deal is expected to close in early November). The addition of the 25-person company to Logitech’s roster comes with the goal of creating solid video communication software to go along with their extremely popular webcams. Current users of SightSpeed are open to use a free version of their software, or a premium version that costs either $9.95 per month or $99.95 a year.

As of right now there’s no telling if the software of the fancy new acquisition will cost anything to use, or if it’ll be an upgrade on the software bundled with the cameras, but with any luck more details will emerge soon.

Read More

Posted 10/22/08 at 07:35:35 PM by Alex Castle

Today seems to be a pretty big day in the (previously small) world of touch-screen devices that you don’t actually touch. Microsoft has released a demo showcasing a technology called Touchless which allows an everyday webcam to emulate the functionality of an expensive multi-touch screen. They’ve also released an SDK for Touchless, allowing developers to start creating their own sorta-multi-touch apps.

Mike Wasserman, the creator of the Touchless, has released a video demonstrating the technology in action. The technique involves using the webcam to track the position of “markers” manipulated in the air or on the surface. In the video, Mike uses all sorts of things as markers, including stuffed toys and a lollipop, which makes it seem like anything sufficiently colorful can be used. The video shows off how Touchless can be used to manipulate photos, draw, and play some rudimentary multi-touch games like Pong.

So far, Touchless is just a neat demonstration of an idea. With the SDK released, though, we might see some very cool things built on the technology in the future.

Check out the video or try the demo for yourself and let us know what you think.

Read More

Posted 10/17/08 at 03:36:30 PM by Alex Castle

Have you ever thought to yourself "I like my webcam, but it really doesn’t look enough like a creepy little man staring at me over the top of my monitor?” If so, Novo has a new webcam that’s perfect for you. It’s called the Minoru (Japanese for “reality,” the website proclaims), and in addition to looking like a bright red extraterrestrial, it takes videos in anaglyph 3D.

That’s right, now you and your friends can slap on your favorite pair of red-blue shades and video chat in glorious, color-distorted 3D. The camera achieves the effect by capturing video with two lenses placed about as far apart as a pair of human eyes and combining the videos into a single, 3D stream. The camera will also be able to capture in plain old 2D, using just one lens.

Engadget reports that the device will be launching in December for less than $100.

Read More

Posted 10/10/08 at 10:46:57 AM by Paul Lilly

Those kooky hackers, what will they think of next? The latest fad sweeping the underground community involves a new type of attack (new in how it's being used, anyway) dubbed 'clickjacking,' whereby surfers click on seemingly harmless websites only to end up unknowingly forfeiting control of their webcam and microphone.

So far, clickjacking has been confirmed to affect Adobe's Flash player and for every major browser, such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, and yes, it affects Google's Chrome browser too.

"It is a very serious problem," said Giorgio Maone, author of the NoScript Firefox extension. "Clickjacking is a very simple attack to build, and now that the details are out, any script kid can try it successfully. There's no estimate to the number of trap sites." 

Maone went on to warn that clickjacking is impervious to signature-based scanning. Adobe has recognized the threat as being "critical" and is instructing users on how to turn off Flash access to webcams and microphones. But is it a cure all? According to Robert Hansen, CEO of SecTheory, Flash clickjacking represents but a single variant of what could turn out to be a widespread threat, and that the only real fix will be in changing existing web standards, not the individual applications themselves.

Find out how the latest version of NoScript helps Firefox users fight back against clickjacking after the jump.

Read More

Posted 09/05/08 at 09:30:51 AM by Michael Brown

Trendnet’s wireless TV-IP422W IP camera boasts some terrific features, including motorized tilt and pan, but is that enough to knock Logitech’s Wi-Life system off our Kick Ass list? Read our full hands-on review--and check out the software's user interface--after the jump.

Read More