The Facetime app marks the first mass market video communication capabilities not tied to a specific carrier.
All that was needed was a vision and a device.
Requirements:
- either an iPhone 4, 4th generation Touch, or snow leopard Mac computer
- wifi connection
- Facetime application on both ends of the communication <free download direct from Apple >
Capabilities:
- Basic video communications, well advertised
- From a mobile device, switch between front or rear facing camera for view of person or persons surroundings as shown below
- From mobile device, switch from portrait to landscape mode as shown below simply by orienting the device.
- Automatic start/stop remote viewing sessions .
- Automatically logs time spent in facetime sessions. See below.
Uses:
- Most emotionally compelling form of real time communication, face to face
- Most efficient way to communicate complex design and pattern information
- Most effective way to insure integrity of communication, visual reality including surroundings
- Augmented reality to improve situational awareness , see theodolite picture below.
- On demand remote surveillance with authorization from surveilled location
- Remote viewing applications at a cost/benefit ratio pennies on the dollar compared to past choices
- There is no longer any need to run a continuous video channel to the Web just for periodic viewing of remote locations. Phone home, remote viewing , with no intervention required on the receiving end to start or stop.
- Facetime logs the call history, track what users are doing with their time.
More:
While Facetime officially works only over wifi connections, Skype release of late December 2010 does video calls on 3G (cell) networks.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skype/id304878510?mt=8
Just in case local cell traffic is not already bogged down without new video overload.
Video camera on the 4G touch is capable of 1280x720 at 30 fps, complete specs . Video quality that must be seen to be believed from a device that can always be with you.
Forward facing landscape view
Forward Facing Portrait
Rear facing Landscape
Rear Facing Portrait
Tricks with Mirrors
Theodolite Situational Awareness Augmentation
Facetime session logging displayed on right pane
Facetime for Mac and a simple applescript make a great remote video stream viewer that can be turned on and off from a remote location.
http://www.apple.com/mac/facetime/ and use the download link at the bottom of the page. The one at the top is broken as of November 1, 2010.
Then sign up using apple id or any email address of your choosing.
Start facetime, double-click a contact from your address book who also has facetime, their end rings. If and when they answer, you are connected dual-pane.
Remote Viewing
Taking this one tiny step further creates a simple remote camera feed. All that is needed is a script that will automatically pick up the call, hang up when the call is over. Facetime picks up the call, based upon the email address that is called.
So the first step for remote viewing is to get a custom email address that few people know. Anybody who knows the facetime email address can run facetime to view your camera. For many camera locations, you may want to restrict that to a fairly tight circle of friends.
Get the script here, http://www.corndogcomputers.com/tips/how-to-setup-a-home-surveillance-system-using-facetime/ to be sure you are getting the latest version. It is obviously updating rapidly at this early stage.
Put the script in a handy place on your machine. When leaving for a while, double-click the script to launch applescript, hit the run button to start Facetime Auto-Answer.
Then while out and about, periodically checking the camera is as simple as
- launching facetime on your laptop or Touch
- find the entry in the address book
- double-click the entry
- a few moments later the camera will begin feeding the video stream
To end, simply hang up.
This is a very nice bandwidth optimization versus continuous streaming video. There is no continuous stream required just to get a periodic look from the remote camera's point of view.