Desktop Video conference

The Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000
http://www.geek.com/hwswrev/hardware/logicam/index.htm
The hardware component for my desktop videoconferencing project is Logitec’s webcam model, QuickCam Pro 4000.

This week’s blog will focus on my observations of the product as I link it to my workstation where I down-loaded the Marratech videoconference software.
My Observations
The first thing I noticed is that the ball mount swivel mechanism allows a good amount of camera movement but it came out of the bracket when I tried to turn it sideways.
Installing the QuickCam Pro 4000's software is easy: simply drop in the installation CD to grab Logitech's ImageStudio 7.0, Yahoo Messenger, and IM Video Companion. The CD also installs the new Desktop Messenger, a small agent that runs on your machine and automatically updates you about new products. While it's better than spam in your in-box, I find the pop-up window very annoying.

The Specifications
As with most PC cameras, the majority of the QuickCam Pro 4000's features are in the software. The camera has a VGA-sized (640x480-pixel) CCD sensor, a glass lens, and a built-in microphone. The top-mounted shutter-release button lets you click off a snapshot using the ImageStudio software, though I hit it by accident when positioning the camera. This Webcam also includes a privacy shade that you can flip over the lens if there's someone or something that you don't want the camera to see. This cover is mounted by the dimples on either side of the unit, though, and tends to fall off when bumped.

Still images are saved as JPEGs, while video is stored in the AVI format. If you click this QuickCam's E-mail Video button, the software compresses your AVI file into the Microsoft Windows Media (WMV) format. While quality suffers in the compressed version, it's fine for sending talking head shots.

As previously mentioned, the My Gallery utility provides very rudimentary image editing and the ability to add text to video. For more involved editing and special effects, you'll want to load VideoWave SE 4.0 and PhotoSuite SE 4.0 applications.
Performance of Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000
A USB camera is not High Definition (HD) nor would you want it to be. There is an acceptable tradeoff of quality for bandwidth with USB cameras . You can capture 160x120 and 320x240 video at 30 frames per second (fps) with a reasonably fast PC. I tested the QuickCam Pro 4000 with my 1GHz machine and produced a 30fps video with a well-synchronized audio track. Audio quality with the camera mike is fine for normal speech. At 640x480, the frame rate drops to 15fps, though movement still appears smooth. I noticed very little blurring on normal movement in videos.


Desktop video conference devices and firmware are ideal for one to one distant communication particularly when screen sharing is a necessary component as in my Distance Reference project.