Professional Video Conferencing: Logitech QuickCam Orbit

Look Me In The Eyes, Continued

So if you get the Orbit in the right position opposite your face and don't disturb it, face-tracking works perfectly. Once you are in the field of view, your face stays on screen. There is also an automatic zoom function to adjust the distance from the face to keep it completely in the frame. You can deactivate this if you like. If you do use it, you should stay a good way away because the zoom is digital and degrades the image a bit.

Apart from it being really good fun - you never tire of seeing how the camera follows you and you can't help thinking of Hal in 2001 A Space Odyssey - being able to chat with your hands free is a definite upside. Seeing a talker in close-up gives a whole new dimension to videoconferencing.

Webcams And Broadband Make Good Bedfellows

Being able to see and hear the person you are talking to and getting their facial expressions and tone of voice helps you understand better. This is why, after inventing the telephone, humans have dreamt of adding images to it.

In the early 1980s, France Telecom made some attempts at video telephony in Biarritz. The idea then was to transmit a signal combining sound and video via optic fibers. While the experiment has not yet revolutionized our phoning habits, the Internet has. Anybody now can talk to and see the person on the other end of the line, even if they are on the opposite side of the world. All you need is an internet connection and a Webcam.

There was a time when there seemed to be little point in such things because of slow STN (Switched Telephone Network) connections, poor quality video and high call costs. But now, since the spread of broadband packages (ADSL or cable) and the drop in the price of Webcamssome Webcams now cost less than $10 - the cost of both equipment and calls continues to go down as quality goes up.