Apple may build video cams into future Macs
A recently published Apple patent application reveals that the company last year toyed with the idea of integrating a tiny video camera into the latch of a future laptop design, presumably with intentions of leveraging its iChat audio-video conferencing software.
The filing, made March 12, 2004, describes a design for a laptop computer that includes a base and a lid that pivots relative to the base. "The portable computer further includes a latch including a data capture device such as a camera that is configured to secure the lid to the base," the filing reads.
According to the filing, the invention includes a positioning device for controlling the rotation of the latch (and hence the camera) about an axis. The camera also includes a charge coupled device (CCD) image sensor or a complimentary oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor.
While it's unlikely that Apple will release a PowerBook with a built-in camera in the immediate future, reliable sources have recently reported sightings of a PowerPC-based iMac prototype that is said to sport similar functionality.
The sources describe the iMac G5 prototype as being marginally thinner than the current model and including a scaled down version of Apple's iSight video camera that is built into the computer's display bezel. The iMac design, which could see the light of day in coming months, is also said to sport a memory card reader and Bluetooth remote control capabilities.
Apple has so far sold iSight video cams separately for its computers, coining them the "eyes and ears" of its iChat AV software that allows users to video-conference with up to three people simultaneously (or audioconference with up to ten). The latest version of the software, iChat AV 3.0, is one of the most touted features of Apple's new Mac OS X "Tiger" operating system.
Although much of the hoopla lately has surrounded Apple's music products, the potential and quality of its iChat video-conferencing solutions have not go unnoticed. As recently as last month, CNN announced that it had begun experimenting with iChat AV to conduct face-to-face interviews on the show "Situation Room", which is hosted by Wolf Blitzer.
"What really is important about this is by using cheap Internet technology, they will be able to reach people all over the world on very short notice," said Joi Ito, one of the first interviewees to appear on the CNN show. "I think that there are a lot of interesting possibilities and I hope they experiment with the format and break some new ground."
Apple itself has flirted with broadening the possibilities of iChat video-conferencing in recent years. Back in 2003, the company began beta testing a service referred to as 'AppleCare Video.' It was designed to allow iMac customers with a video cam and iChat AV to video-conference one-on-one with an Apple customer support representative. The concept bled with promise of redefining customer support for the average personal computer user, but for reason's unknown to AppleInsider the service never got off the ground.
The filing, made March 12, 2004, describes a design for a laptop computer that includes a base and a lid that pivots relative to the base. "The portable computer further includes a latch including a data capture device such as a camera that is configured to secure the lid to the base," the filing reads.
According to the filing, the invention includes a positioning device for controlling the rotation of the latch (and hence the camera) about an axis. The camera also includes a charge coupled device (CCD) image sensor or a complimentary oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor.
While it's unlikely that Apple will release a PowerBook with a built-in camera in the immediate future, reliable sources have recently reported sightings of a PowerPC-based iMac prototype that is said to sport similar functionality.
The sources describe the iMac G5 prototype as being marginally thinner than the current model and including a scaled down version of Apple's iSight video camera that is built into the computer's display bezel. The iMac design, which could see the light of day in coming months, is also said to sport a memory card reader and Bluetooth remote control capabilities.
Apple has so far sold iSight video cams separately for its computers, coining them the "eyes and ears" of its iChat AV software that allows users to video-conference with up to three people simultaneously (or audioconference with up to ten). The latest version of the software, iChat AV 3.0, is one of the most touted features of Apple's new Mac OS X "Tiger" operating system.
Although much of the hoopla lately has surrounded Apple's music products, the potential and quality of its iChat video-conferencing solutions have not go unnoticed. As recently as last month, CNN announced that it had begun experimenting with iChat AV to conduct face-to-face interviews on the show "Situation Room", which is hosted by Wolf Blitzer.
"What really is important about this is by using cheap Internet technology, they will be able to reach people all over the world on very short notice," said Joi Ito, one of the first interviewees to appear on the CNN show. "I think that there are a lot of interesting possibilities and I hope they experiment with the format and break some new ground."
Apple itself has flirted with broadening the possibilities of iChat video-conferencing in recent years. Back in 2003, the company began beta testing a service referred to as 'AppleCare Video.' It was designed to allow iMac customers with a video cam and iChat AV to video-conference one-on-one with an Apple customer support representative. The concept bled with promise of redefining customer support for the average personal computer user, but for reason's unknown to AppleInsider the service never got off the ground.
Comments
Anything to keep costs high, I guess...
but if it's built into each shipping mac, then ichat's video conferencing (which apple is investing and marketing the crap out of) might actually take off before anyone else can.
they do, however, have to work on bandwidth management, though, after this hurricane, i have a new found respect for the dial-up connection. i had become spoiled by broadband, thinking everyone has it., actually, no, and in many cases, especially during natural disaster, cable connections go down much faster and much MUCH longer than a good ol' fashioned landline phone.
On the software side, I'm sure many of you remember CuSeeMe; a large part of its popularity was the fact that you could have many people conferencing in a "video chatroom" of sorts with 10 or more feeds going. For some reason this just hit me, but if Apple used an excellent quality, fast lens (say f/1.2 or in that range) to seriously limit depth of field, they could actively mask out the out of focus background (as an alternative to carrying around a greenscreen) and create a truely "virtual" video chat room.
Of course the problem with something like that is you know porn type sites and the more exhibitionist population would run hogwild (hopefully not literally) with such a thing.
Asus does this here
Originally posted by satchmo
While I'm sure Apple would make a elegant implementation combining software with hardware, the whole integrated video camera in a laptop is already here.
Asus does this here
Sony's long had models with this feature as well, going back at least 5 years.
Originally posted by satchmo
While I'm sure Apple would make a elegant implementation combining software with hardware, the whole integrated video camera in a laptop is already here.
Asus does this here
Of course...Apple is very rarely the first at anything...but they're the first to make some things worth buying.
I, for one, would love to see all computer displays with built-in cameras, especially laptops. The bandwidth might not be there yet but it will be...and things like H.264 are helping alleviate some of the bandwidth issues.
...because no one wants to be reminded visually of the fact that they're talking to someone from India. It's bad enough you can't make out what the heck they're saying.
While I'm sure Apple would make a elegant implementation combining software with hardware, the whole integrated video camera in a laptop is already here.
The iPod wasn't the first mp3 player. But its practically the only one that matters now.
It's catching on in the music community as a method of giving remote music
lessons, for instance.
Kevin Callahan
And, as an example of gratuitous self promotion, let me direct you to the
world's first automated billing system for any video conferencing system:
FlavorSofa
iChat AV is the first system with enough quality and ease of use to make
audio and video conferencing mainstream.
My only question is why in the world hasn't Apple shipped a Windows version
yet? Might as well sell iSights to the whole world.
Originally posted by Tom Mornini
iChat AV seems to be gathering steam.
It's catching on in the music community as a method of giving remote music
lessons, for instance.
Kevin Callahan
And, as an example of gratuitous self promotion, let me direct you to the
world's first automated billing system for any video conferencing system:
FlavorSofa
iChat AV is the first system with enough quality and ease of use to make
audio and video conferencing mainstream.
My only question is why in the world hasn't Apple shipped a Windows version
yet? Might as well sell iSights to the whole world.
I'm afraid a windoze version would mean a usb isight. :-(
Originally posted by warfang
I'm afraid a windoze version would mean a usb isight. :-(
1) It didn't mean that for the iPod (at first)
2) Why would you care?
Originally posted by Tom Mornini
1) It didn't mean that for the iPod (at first)
2) Why would you care?
yes... at first... it's usb ONLY now, albiet some you can still buy firewire cables for.
Firewire is a better technology. USB2 maybe more popular, but has more limits to them. The more people settle for inferior technology, the pro users gets the shaft with higher prices for firewire equipment.
Not an ideal situation, and I don't see the cost advantage; whereas with the iPod they had to maintain hardware interfaces for both USB2 and Firewire. My guess is the Nano lost Firewire for space considerations, and since USB is much more ubiquitous in their customer base of course it won out. Really for the iPod I think the firewire/usb arguement is more an emotional one than a logical one.
Video and storage are a different matter for now. SATA and SATA II I think will end up trumping Firewire in the long run for storage, leaving just Video to Firewire.
Originally posted by warfang
yes... at first... it's usb ONLY now, albiet some you can still buy firewire cables for.
Firewire is a better technology. USB2 maybe more popular, but has more limits to them. The more people settle for inferior technology, the pro users gets the shaft with higher prices for firewire equipment.
While that is true, the Nano was so small hat they could only fit the chip for one interface - so if you were Apple R&D, which would you pick? bear in mind that nearly all Apple computers since 2003 have USB2, same with PCs, yet there are many low end NEW PCs that STILL do not have firewire.
Firewire may be better, but sadly, the war is over and it is a draw - consumers get USB2 and pros/prosumers get firewire.
It is an industry thing, not an Apple thing
Originally posted by a_greer
While that is true, the Nano was so small hat they could only fit the chip for one interface - so if you were Apple R&D, which would you pick? bear in mind that nearly all Apple computers since 2003 have USB2, same with PCs, yet there are many low end NEW PCs that STILL do not have firewire.
Firewire may be better, but sadly, the war is over and it is a draw - consumers get USB2 and pros/prosumers get firewire.
It is an industry thing, not an Apple thing
You're stating the obvious. but wrong about one point: It is indeed an Apple thing. They failed to promote firewire, a standard they created. There are plenty of people with pre 2003 usb2 macs (im not one of them, but know many with) and are now stuck without usb2 or have to buy a new mac. I'm sure Apple feels their pain.
Originally posted by AppleInsider
As recently as last month, CNN announced that it had begun experimenting with iChat AV to conduct face-to-face interviews on the show "Situation Room", which is hosted by Wolf Blitzer.
Internet based conferences could save TV channels a lot of money - and allow for easy video-Podcasts. The problem is that the resolution and framerate and compression makes the picture quality below what we expect (though they were using satellite video-phones for some field reports of the Iraqi war I guess)
Anyway, why can't iChat AV allow a realtime video conference at the best quality the connection can do - PLUS record a high resolution copy to disk. After the interview, the machines could send the high resolution copy to a central computer - so if they show the interview half an hour later it'll be in great quality?
Ahhh technology. Sorry to get off the gist of the article.
No reason why they can't do what you say. Since any digital camcorder/video camera that outputs DV over firewire can work with iChat, they could record to DV at the same time as they are conducting the interview. Big file to send, however. More likely if they wanted higher quality over a relatively high bandwidth link they could have asked Apple to enable iChat to compress with H.264, or just a custom version that allowed H.263 to scale to a higher band link. My guess, however, is that part of the appeal is the cost effectiveness of being able to use standard broadband for easy remote setup. Also note a lot of the quality issues you see with video over iChat are more strongly associated with the quality of the capture device, lighting, and the light gathering capabilities of the recording device, not so much the compression, especially when you consider that most people with digital cable/satellite are just getting MPEG2 feeds to their house anyway.