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Use iMac w/built in webcam 24/7?

B

betsbillabong

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 13, 2004
128
2
Hi there,

My sister in law is in the hospital, away from her 1 year old, and will be there for a few weeks. We'd like to set up an iMac in the playroom so that she could take a look at him at any point. The iMac is a 2 GHz Intel Core Duo w/built in camera.

Is there a way to do this where the playroom iMac could just constantly be on? Of course we want this to be private for obvious reasons. Can we leave iChat constantly turned on on the playroom iMac and set it up to automatically answer?

What's the best way to do this? Chat would of course be great as well, but I think it would make her really happy just to be able to call up and see him.

Thanks - I am the computer literate one in the family and hoping to set this up in the next few hours before I leave town for a couple of weeks.

BB
 
This may be a silly question but I assume the child is being looked after by someone, couldn't they simply answer iChat ?
 
Leaving a fragile iMac around a small child could be asking for trouble too. I'd at least use something with a seperate cam so it can be positioned better too. But you can still add 3rd party cams to an iMac if you wanted, and switch between that or built in iSight.
However, I don't think i'd use iChat for such a use. Evocam on the other hand could be well worth a look. You can log in to that from any java supported web browser very easily. Plus you can set a password etc.
 
OK... further questions

Thanks for your replies. I just tried it from my powerbook. There's a camera (the built in camera) attached to the iMac, but not to the powerbook trying to access. How can I access it so that the powerbook can see the video of the iMac, even if the powerbook itself cannot send video?

Thanks!
 
Baby Webcam

Thanks for all of your suggestions... I was able to implement Evocam, although Remote Desktop and Photobooth is an intriguing idea, too.

Just so that I understand, if we eventually use iChat, is it true that in order for my sister-in-law to see the video of the baby, she must have a webcam too? I was hoping that video chat could be video one way, audio another - but I couldn't get it to work. I'm guessing that's because you need cameras on both ends?

Finally, does anyone know of any cross-platform solutions? I don't think my brother wants to steal my dad's computer for months, and would like to find a solution with his windows laptop. My sister in law has a powerbook.

Thanks,
BB
 
iChat does allow 1 way video chats. I think you initiate it from the pull down 'Buddies' menu.
As for Cross platform video conferencing (1 or 2 way) Skype can be good for this. Camfrog is also worth a look, although the videos on there are small.
 
betsbillabong said:
Thanks for all of your suggestions... I was able to implement Evocam, although Remote Desktop and Photobooth is an intriguing idea, too.
Click to expand...

How does evocam work for you? Do you like it?

Hmmm, with respect to cross-platform solutions, I think Skype can do a one-way video chat. Skype seems to be the most trustworthy cross platform AV conferencing.
 
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