For most people video calling or video chat through Skype, MSN, Google+ Hangout or MSN has become a far-flung yet appealing affair. It allows you to communicate face to face with people staying in far off regions that too free of cost. But what if someone possesses a desktop with no webcam?
Tips to Use Android Phone as Webcam
Can your smart phone be true to its name and provide a smart solution to this? The technological development in Android apps has made this possible too. Given below are three such apps that let you use your phone camera as Webcam without you spending a single penny.
1. Droid Cam
Droid Cam transforms your Android device into a wireless webcam and thus letting you chat on Skype, Google+ and other such programs. The app works with a PC Client component that installs the webcam drivers, and connects the computer with the Android device.
It is completely free and gives you unlimited usage. You can connect over USB cable or even wirelessly through Wi-Fi. The best part is that it doesn’t consume much of your battery or phone space like other large annoying apps available in the Play Store.
2. IP Webcam
IP Webcam turns your Android device into a network camera with multiple viewing options. You can view your camera on any platform with VLC player or web browser. There are several web renderers to choose from namely Flash, Javascript or built-in. It has motion detection with sound trigger.
It has sensor data acquisition with online web graphing. It uses a universal MJPEG video streaming driver to stream videos for Windows and Linux platforms.
3. Smart Cam
Smart Cam is another unique software that works via Bluetooth with both audio and video feature letting your android device turn into a smart webcam. You can change the resolution, unlike Droid Cam, so it gets thumbs up there. Its setup is very simple and provides various connectivity options like Wifi, USB or Bluetooth.
The Settings menu on the SmartCam app, choose your connection type and configure your Bluetooth or Wi-fi settings (enter the local IP address of your computer as the “remote server”; the port probably won’t need to be changed). In the SmartCam computer application settings, select your connection type the same as you did in the phone app. In the phone app’s menu, click the Connect WI-Fi or Bluetooth button. In Skype or Gmail chat, video settings select “SmartCam” as the source.
For connections via Wi-Fi they all worked fine, but DroidCam could do audio and was easier to set up so it comes out on top there. For Connections through the Bluetooth feature, nothing can match the quality of Smart Cam. It also provides you with high quality audio transmission.
IP Webcam on the contrary offers the most features as compared to the other two, but takes up a lot of your space on your android device as well as computer. So now the choice is on you to choose one that suits your needs the best. 😀
