It was actually writing that article that made me start thinking about other uses for my webcam. Then, as I sat there staring at the cellphone – an old HTC 8125 with just a 1.3 mega pixel camera – I started to wonder if there was a way I could convert this little phone into a portable webcam that could stream video from anywhere in the world where there’s a cellphone data network.

That curiosity and a little bit of Internet research led me to VZOchat, an interesting free online service where you can configure your own video chat account and whenever you’re online you can receive direct video calls from anyone.

So, what does this have to do with turning a Windows Mobile smartphone into a remote webcam? Well, the VZOchat service also offers a mobile version. This means that people can trigger a video conferencing call to your mobile phone, but it also means that you can set up your cellphone anywhere you like, and then fire off a call to the phone from your computer which will enable the streaming video feature of the VZOchat software on your phone!

Want to spy on the room where you accidently “left” your phone? Maybe you want to stream a really cool rock concert to your friends with your cellphone. The potential uses for streaming live video from your cellphone are unlimited. As if that’s not cool enough – there’s one more little feature that VZOchat offers – the ability to embed the video call feature directly into your blog or website so anyone can video chat with you straight from your blog.

I’ll cover each of these features in this article. Let’s get started.

Setting Up Your Own Private Videochat

When you first sign up for your free VZOchat account, you’ll instantly have access to a special web page where you can find your embedded videochat room. You don’t even have to install any software on your PC, only a plugin for your browser so that the videochat room works properly.

Yes, I know I look tired. I’ve been staying up all night writing this article!

Now, VZOchat is actually a video chat community, so if you want to you can set your status as public and let everyone on the social network see your profile and call you. I’m not exactly that much of a social butterfly, so I left that feature disabled – I’m only here for the cool Internet video chat software.

All you have to do to call another user on VZOchat is click “start videochat” and type their name. For my purposes – I want to initiate a video chat with my cellphone, and I want the cellphone to pick up automatically. So step two is setting up the mobile version of VZOchat on your Windows Mobile device (Windows Mobile only).

Setting Up VZOchat As a Cameraphone Webcam

Once you download and install the CAB file to your mobile and you log in using the credentials that you signed up with, you’ll see the following screen on your phone.

At this point, the green bar means that you’re online and ready to send or receive video calls. This means that you can remotely call your phone with your computer, but first you have to tell your phone to automatically pick up the call. Do this by clicking on “Options.”

Most of the settings within options are pretty self-explanatory. Most of the calling features you want to configure are in the “Integration” menu item. When you click on that icon you’ll see the following screen.

As you can see here, you can integrate the software to work with Outlook Mobile and the Today Screen – but what you really want to make sure to click here is the option to “Automatically accept incoming calls.” Once you do this, you’re ready to remotely fire up your cellphone as a remote cameraphone webcam!

To test this, I placed my old Windows Mobile 5 PDA on my kitchen countertop facing a Halloween art project my wife and kids created – a small tree with ghosts hanging on the branches. Running back across the house to my laptop (I seriously ran, I was that excited), I clicked on the green call button and watched as the software initiated the call. Suddenly, the video window changed to a view of what my cellphone was pointed to at that moment.

Now, I should mention a few things about this image. My particular camera is ancient, and a 1.3 mega pixel camera is hardly comparable to the sort of resolution available on most modern smartphones. Secondly, I noticed my image updated about once every 5 seconds or so, which I believe was related to my data upload speed over the cellular data line – and I hardly had a signal in my house. Again, a newer model will most likely perform much better.

Finally, if you do decide to use this technique to convert your cellphone into a cameraphone webcam, make sure you either have an unlimited Internet data plan or your phone is connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi.

Embedding the Video Chat Feature Into Your Blog

Now that we’ve accomplished the first task. I want to show you one more amazingly cool feature with VZOchat that had me smiling from ear to ear – the ability to embed a calling box into your blog or web page so visitors can initiate a video chat with you. Here’s how it works.

When you’re logged into your VZOchat account, click on the “widgets” tab at the top.

Here, you’ll see two options. The first is a neat little VZOchat widget using the iframe tag that lets you embed your profile call gateway into your blog, which I’ve done here on my blog FreeWritingCenter.

Now, the value of just offering such a feature on your blog or website is tremendous. Allow visitors to interact with you directly to discuss a topic you’ve blogged about. Or, maybe you have a tech support website and you could use this feature to let your clients contact you directly video chat right from your web page.

The one drawback with the widget is that when they click on it, it opens a whole different window on VZOchat for your visitor to talk to you. If you want them to stay right at your site, you can use the VZOchat Webclient code instead – and visitors can have a video chat with you right on your own web page.

Here’s me having a chat with myself right on my blog.

After about 10 minutes, I found myself pretty darn boring, so I just hung up on myself. The embedded video chat is still there, as is the sidebar call feature (for now). I’m going to leave it there to chat with MUO readers and others unless I find a better service at some point. If it’s still there and I’m online, go ahead and give me a call and let’s chat!

Can you think of any cool uses for turning your mobile phone into a cameraphone webcam? What about using the service in your blog, or combining the two features so visitors can call you on your mobile? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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The Mac and the cameras

So I connect my digital camera to my Mac almost all the time; saving those precious moments to the hard drive.

There are two applications that I use to manage my photos: iPhoto (which always opens automatically), and the camera picture transfer software from my camera manufacturer – just for the sake of backup.

But the source of photos is not only my own camera. My wife has a pocket digital camera. My kids are still babies, but soon they too will start taking pictures. And I believe that there are folks who have several cameras for each of their family members. Over time, managing all of the devices and all the pictures taken by them could be mundane tasks.

Luckily, there’s Cameras – a little Mac app to help you manage all of your cameras including your iPhone’s camera.

Shoot, Cameras, Manage!

This camera picture transfer software from Flexibits is less than 1MB in size. So downloading it wouldn’t be a problem. The installation process is also a snap; you just double-click on the “Cameras.prefPane”. Cameras will then reside in your Mac’s System Preferences.

You will have a blank “Cameras” Preferences Pane window. Make sure to check “Enable Cameras” and choose “Ask what to do” in the options of “When you connect new cameras”. These option allow Cameras to always run in the background and ask you what to do if you connect new camera(s).

After doing that little setting, I connect my camera to my Mac and… a pop-up window appears and asks what to do every time that specific camera is connected. The options are: do nothing, open iPhoto, open Image Capture, open other application, and automatically download. Choose one according to your preferences.

The nice thing about Cameras is that you can set different things to do for each different camera. If you want to, you can choose to simply download all images from all of your cameras automatically.

But if you are a professional photographer who wants to edit the shots from your dSLR with Aperture while manage images from other cameras with iPhoto, you can do so. Just set your preference in Cameras and you won’t be bothered again.

With a little help from Image Capture

My personal preferences is to manage all my pictures with iPhoto and keep a copy of each for backup. To achieve this objective, I ask Cameras to open Image Capture.

In Image Capture, I set the option to download the image from my camera to a folder (as the back up) and set it to automatically opens iPhoto after the downloading process has finished.

I also dug a little bit deeper into Image Capture’s options and choose to

• delete items from camera after downloading
• automatically download all items from camera
• set the camera’s date and time

With everything is set, all that’s left for me to do is to continue taking pictures and connect my cameras to my Mac. No more manually opening several apps and downloading the images.

Final Note and Wish List

As the ’s’ behind the name suggested plural form, Cameras is indeed a useful little app for those who have multiple cameras.

But I need to point out that if you have only one camera, Image Capture could do a better job in automatic camera management.

So, I think Cameras would turn into a much better app if the developer adds the ability to:

• do several task for each device, for example: first downloads the pictures, then renames them, then opens iPhoto, and continues with the task of creating copies of the images in folder X.
• manage other cellphone’s cameras other than iPhone. Almost everybody has cellphones these days, and almost all cellphones have camera built in. iPhone might be very popular, but not everybody owns it.

Do you enjoy photography? Do you have multiple cameras? Have you tried Cameras? Or do you know better alternative application? Share using the comment below.

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Skip the hassle, and archive information the easy way. Just flip out your cellphone and take a few snapshots. You can refer to them later, they’re easy to delete, & they will cost you next to nothing.

In a Rush

Imagine you’re at the local library scrambling to complete a research project at the last minute.  However, a voice over the intercom has just informed you that the library will be closing in 15 minutes. You’ve found some solid reference material, but you don’t have any change to use in the Xerox machine. Plus, you need to copy 20 or 30 pages of material. All you’ve got in your pocket is a cellphone. Don’t worry. Just find a good light source and use your phone’s camera!

Clarity of Photos

Clarity is a must whenever you reproduce a document. If you’ve ever made a copy on a machine that’s low on toner, then you know exactly how important clarity is to your reproductions.

Without clarity, your documents are rendered worthless.

Therefore, it is essential that you take photos from an optimal distance when using your cell phone as a copy machine. In my experience, I can safely take photos of half of a page of material without the words on the page looking blurred or unreadable.

Also, I recommend that you take a snapshot at an angle where no shadow will be cast over a page, espcially when words are difficult to read close to a spine of a book.  Additionally, pages will be easier to read later if you mark the divide of the page with your thumb or any other available marker, so that you will know where one photo’s information picks up from the last.

Space for Memory

Unless you use a state-of-the-art phone, memory space is something of a concern if you attempt to convert your cell phone into a copy machine. I recommend that you make a habit of regularly transferring your pictures to your P.C. (which I’ll discuss in a moment). This will free up space, so that you will always have room to take random photos, as well as to document more of your research.

Another option is to buy a digital memory card which can be slotted into your phone (but obviously your phone would need to be built to accept memory cards, which a lot of the new phones do these days).

You never know what will catch your eye next, so it’s best to be on the ready.

Transferring to Computer

Ideally, your cell is already able to connect to the internet, as an iPhone is able to do.

However, if you are a pauper, viable options are still available to enable you to transfer your pics.

While many cell phones give you the option to email files, using this feature may be more costly than a Xerox machine would have been in the first place.

Some phones are equipped with a USB port, and it is possible to upload files from your phone to your computer with the aid of a USB cable.  This is fine if you don’t mind keeping track of the cable.

However, a more satisfying option may be to invest in bluetooth software, which will permit you to link your cellphone up to your computer and to wirelessly transfer your files. This software may cost $25.00 or $30.00, but it will definitely be worth the investment when you consider its superiority alongside of the other alternatives I’ve mentioned.

Online Storage

Photobucket allows you to upload pics from your cellphone directly into an album in your Photobucket account.  Flickr offers a similar service.

If however, you’re only using your photos for reference purposes, you may want to place them in Skydrive, and delete them when you’re finished with your research.

As always, before uploading pics, be aware of any per-picture charges imposed by your cellphone provider.

Save Time & Money

While printing your images at home will still cost you the price of printer ink, you can take measures to defray these costs. For example, you can crop your pics, then copy & paste several cropped images onto a single page. Another easy way to save money when printing is to refill printer cartridges instead of buying new ones (periodically, Walgreens even offers to refill printer ink for free).

Nevertheless, even if you fail to save money on the ink, you’ll still be saving yourself time.

For an extra thrill, clip your pics into Evernote (in cahoots with Eye-Fi to create an instant photographic memory) and you can make text within your photos searchable.

Have Even Better Ideas?

How do you use your cell phone to save time or money? What other uses do you use your cellphone camera for? Which online application is most useful for handling your uploads?

Let us know what you think. We’re always eager to follow up on new trends, so don’t be afraid to be a new trendsetter!

Photo Credits : Mac Funamizu, lastyearsgirl, lincolnblues and JulianBleeker

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What are QR Codes?

You’re probably already familiar with the bar code. It’s a series of differently widthed and spaced lines that confers a numerical value to the item it is attached to. While it appears to be a 2D object, it’s actually one dimensional, since the scanner picks up all the information it needs by taking a cross-section of the image.

QR, or “Quick Response,” Codes are different because the entire image is part of the code. While I’m not an expert in the layout of these codes, here is some general info about how they are constructed.

The three prominent boxes in the corners of each code indicate the location of the image (so it can be centered by the image parser). Another smaller box in the lower-right aligns the image. The rest of the blocks indicate the information specific to the international standards (which were approved in 2000) and finally the identifying data contained within the code.

“How are these codes read?” you might be asking. Cameraphones are the answer. While the US has been slow to adopt cameraphones, their use became ubiquitous many years ago in Japan and other Asian nations. They subsequently began developing technologies that make the best use of all those cameras. One of them is QR Code. Any object or advertisement can be labeled with one of these bad boys and automatically any cameraphone user can immediately summon up the underlying message.

QR Code Generator

Now that you understand the premise of QR Codes, I’ll bet you’re hankering to try some out. First of all, you can make your own easily online. Semapedia has a QR Code generator, as do these similarly named sites at Winksite and Kaywa. The Semapedia one has an option to make several in a batch. Winksite is my favorite generator because it gives you the most options in terms of how you want your data to read out. Here’s a sample below:

After you generate these codes, what can you do with them? Well they have an enormous number of different uses. One of their first applications, industrial cataloging, can be used domestically as well. Simply place QR Codes on items like books or sealed boxes so you can quickly find out what’s in them. Alternately, you can post them in public places in hopes that other QR initiates will pick up on the trend and contact you.

While these may seem strange and foreign, the QR Code has already become a staple of Japanese culture. I asked my friend who recently visited Japan for several months if she was familiar with QR Codes. At first she didn’t recognized the term, but once I showed her one, she told me that they are on absolutely everything (known locally as “barcodes”). They display nutritional information on foods, coupons for products, and replace the “see our website” moniker found on most advertisements in America.

Want to try it out for yourself? Go to Semapedia and scroll to the bottom. You’ll see an area for selecting your type of phone. After that the instructions should guide you the rest of the way. If you’re an iPhone user, you’re in luck. There is a very nice App for the iPhone, called 2D Sense, already up on the App Store.

If you want to learn more about QR Codes, here are some resources for you:

• QR Code article on Wikipedia
• QR Code Library at SourceForge
• 2D Sense Website

Have you ever seen these out in the wild? I think I’ve seen them on the odd package sent through a shipping service, but that’s about it. Maybe now that I know about them, I’ll notice them more often (and snag a look with my iPhone).

[Images from YouSay, Wikipedia, and 2D Sense, respectively]

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