Application for taking USB 2.0 video input and displaying it full screen?

[Max on Macs]

Hi guys,

I have a MacBook Pro and am looking for a program that will take video input (via USB 2.0) and display it on my laptop full-screen. Is there any app that will do this? The reason is I'm thinking of buying this

http://www.tieman.com/?id=1480

But the included software is only for PC and these guys know nothing about macs but said any program that takes video input from USB 2.0 should be able to work with it fine.

What would be really awesome is if when I press Apple+Tab to switch to the app that does this it automatically turns off Universal Access Zoom (so I can see the whole screen of the magnified image) and then when I Apple+Tab to another app it turns it right back on.

Anyone who can suggest any apps that would do what I'm looking for please let me know, this would be a huge help to me.

Thanks

 

[Max on Macs]

Sorry I should have put this in Mac Applications mods please move...

 

[mrichmon]

Hi guys,

I have a MacBook Pro and am looking for a program that will take video input (via USB 2.0) and display it on my laptop full-screen. Is there any app that will do this? The reason is I'm thinking of buying this

http://www.tieman.com/?id=1480

But the included software is only for PC and these guys know nothing about macs but said any program that takes video input from USB 2.0 should be able to work with it fine.

What would be really awesome is if when I press Apple+Tab to switch to the app that does this it automatically turns off Universal Access Zoom (so I can see the whole screen of the magnified image) and then when I Apple+Tab to another app it turns it right back on.

Anyone who can suggest any apps that would do what I'm looking for please let me know, this would be a huge help to me.

Thanks

Couple of bits of information that might be of help:

Universal Access Zoom on OS X can be turned on and off by pressing option-command-8. option-command-+ and option-command-- control the zoom level when it is turned on.

Video cameras under OS X are typically firewire devices since video over firewire is a well defined standard and integrated into OS X. I wonder whether an iSight would accomplish any of your intended use using a third party camera application such as EvoCam or the other apps listed here: http://mac.sillydog.org/isight/apps.php

Support for some USB cameras under OS X has been developed by the USB webcam project. It is possible that the camera you linked to would work with this software. But in terms of interoperability and wide software support you are better off trying to stick with a camera that supports the video transfer over firewire protocol.

 

[Max on Macs]

Hi there,

Thanks for your response. An iSight wouldn't really do what I am after for this since what I want the camera for is for reading books, notes, etc., (I'm visually impaired). Also I know the key combinations for Zoom since I use it all of the time (it's the only way I can easily access a computer) and so the feature to turn it on and off automatically isn't that important, I'm just really terribly lazy.

Thanks

 

[mrichmon]

An iSight wouldn't really do what I am after for this since what I want the camera for is for reading books, notes, etc.,

That is precisely what I was suggesting an iSight with a SightFlex stand would possibly work for that sort of use.

The software IveZeen allows you to view through the isight and allows for manual control of the brightness, contrast, focus of the camera. The iSight focuses down to objects 50mm (2 inches) away from the camera and I've seen it comfortably focus on pages of text.

I guess a big question is whether you can find a firewire camera that has an optical zoom. (Or software that will produce a sufficiently detailed software zoom.)

Maybe one of the cameras with zoom that are supported by IOXWebCam would do the job.