[CAnet - news] How to make videoconferencing fun with Skype

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[If you have ever been involved in a boring "talking heads" video
conference, here is a tool that should brighten you day and entertain your
fellow video conference participants. Some excerpts from Network World
article -- BSA]

http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2006/040306gearhead.html?rlh=0403gibb
s1

Video fun with avatars and Skype

By Mark Gibbs, Network World, 04/03/06

The QuickCam Fusion Webcam with Skype is a good, low-cost videoconferencing
solution and, as you can present yourself as a shark or a gingerbread man,
pretty good fun as well.

The QuickCam Fusion Webcam is a 1.3-megapixel USB camera with a built-in
microphone and a button to take snapshots. 

The effects product - which is free - is called Logitech Video Effects. It
was launched last August and is based on Logitech's face-tracking software,
which enables cameras to identify, follow and focus on human faces. When a
face that has been found moves within the camera's field of view the camera
attempts to keep the face in the center of the frame as much as possible.

This is really cool, but Video Effects goes further by allowing you to
replace yourself with an avatar. The software tracks facial expressions
using as many as 22 points on a user's face. This allows an avatar to be
displayed that copies the user's facial movements and expressions. The
face-tracking system also allows Video Effects to position accessories, such
as eyeglasses, over a user's eyes.

You can select only one accessory or avatar at a time (a shame because we
were ready for some serious Mr. Potato Head-type games). Accessories include
those we already mentioned as well as heavy eyebrows (alas, no uni-brow), a
curly moustache, Groucho Marx-style glasses and moustache, a crown and so
on.   

For avatars you can choose from an alien, a gingerbread person, a dinosaur,
a shark (which is very cool), a car, a stick figure (which is also pretty
cool), a Tiki face or a number of generic human faces (that are not at all
cool).

We also tried using the QuickCam Fusion Webcam with the latest release of
Skype, which now supports video, and found it works well

All in all, the QuickCam Fusion Webcam with Skype is a good, low-cost
videoconferencing solution and, as you can present yourself as a shark or a
gingerbread man, pretty good fun as well.



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