As avid readers may remember, my brother is shortly off to Australia with his lovely girlfriend (Happy Birthday again 🙂 ) and her mum. With impressive foresight, he has been asking people what they want for Christmas, so the two of them can try and sort out all the pressies now, rather than rushing around like headless chickens when they return to the UK, just a few days before Xmas itself. I would have been tempted to use the trip as an excuse, and wait for the New Year sales to pick up some bargains, but Nick has a more mature outlook already I guess 😉
Anyway, I’ve been struggling to find something I’d really like, and having asked for contributions to charity for my birthday earlier in the year, I have to admit my selfish side is rearing its head, and wanting to have something to unwrap this December.
Something I noticed over at buy.com was a pretty high quality webcam, which has a number of attention grabbing features. Primarily, the $30 rebate on an already competitive price obviously caught my attention, although the Carl Zeiss lens (as used on many top end Sony digital cameras) is pretty important for those of us hoping for a little more than the traditional grainy, blurred video provided by older webcams.
I’m not sure whether the face tracking software included would be a useful addition, or simply a toy to play with, but the ability to pan and tilt the camera from your PC is a definite boon. Although not apparently a built in feature (yet?) I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be too difficult to bodge up some code in conjunction with remote software, so you could scan around your room whilst in another house or even country! Anyway, I’ll need to check a few other details before considering the purchase (by proxy 🙂 ), but even if this webcam doesn’t end up on my wish list, there are enough other products at buy.com to keep day dreaming for a good long time to come…