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Monday's Mac Gadget
by John F. Braun


Need to Adjust Your iSight? Use iGlasses!

November 1, 2004

iGlasses 1.0.1 ($8 Demoware)
Ecamm Network

The iSight camera is a slick piece of engineering. For a camera that only weighs a couple of ounces, it packs a lot of features, including the ability to capture video at up to 30 frames per second. It can also capture audio with dual-element microphone that helps filter out noise. This makes it perfect for use with iChat AV, Apple's audio/video conferencing tool. Unfortunately, iChat AV doesn't always produce the best video, especially in low light conditions. The good news is that you can adjust the low-level settings for your iSight; you just need the right software. Enter iGlasses.

The first group of settings can help address the aforementioned issue with the iSight capturing an image that is too dark. Sure, you can turn on some lights, or get a SightLight, but the iSight itself is fully capable of compensating for poor lighting. The first setting you should try is (surprise) Brightness. But don't go crazy, since full brightness may be too bright. The Exposure and Gain settings can also help produce an image that is both bright and properly balanced.

Another aspect of image quality is how it looks once you have one that is bright enough. This is where another group of settings can come in. There's Hue, Saturation, Temperature, and White Balance, which can help make sure that your image looks as you've intended. Lastly, there are settings to help make your image as sharp as possible, such as Focus and Edge Enhancement.


Fine Tune Your iSight Experience with Advanced Settings

For those who don't want to spend all of their time tweaking individual settings, there are several pre-sets which can let you quickly adjust settings for several conditions. There's Extra Bright, Super Bright and Night Vision, for varying levels of low light conditions. The Black & White, Sepia and Crazy Colors can give your image an interesting visual twist, and Macro Focus will allow you to get your iSight as close to the action as possible.


Several Pre-Set Profiles Let You Quickly Adjust the iSight

Lastly, iGlasses allows the use of the iSight on G3 computers which are slower than 600 MHz. Sure, it may not be the greatest experience, but at least you'll be able to use your iSight. So get the most out of your iSight, and get some iGlasses today!

Have another other Gadgets that let you see more? Send an e-mail to John, and he'll give it a look.

Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you with those cool things that we all just have to have on our Macs. Shareware, Freeware, Postcardware, Emailware, and even commercial apps, Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you find and use the best of these programs.


John is a software engineer who works in the corporate R&D group of a Fortune 500 company, focusing on all aspects of communications technology. He has several degrees that claim he knows what he's doing when it comes to computers. After watching co-workers reinstall Windows, search for device drivers, and experience other horrors during the day, he's glad that he comes home to a Mac (compatible) computer. Have any comments, suggestions, or favorite Gadgets? Drop John a line at

You can also Post Your Comments below.

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Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Small White Car Posts: 1960 Joined: 02 Jul 2004
Subject:

So this thing can do all this stuff and THEN send the altered signal to iChat to use?

That's neat. The last issue of Macworld had a guy asking how to flip the video in iChat (he wanted to hang his camera upside down) and the Macworld writer didn't know of a program that could alter the image and THEN share that image with iChat.

If this does that then it looks like they solved that problem. This doesn't flip the video, it seems, but now that it exists I'm sure it can be expanded in the future.

Close Name:John F. Braun -   TMO Staff Posts: 233 Joined: 11 Jun 2001
Subject: iGlasses is Available from iChat

Sorry I didn't make it clear, iGlasses is only available from within iChat. I didn't find a feature that would allow flipping of the video, unfortunately.

Close Name:Small White Car Posts: 1960 Joined: 02 Jul 2004
Subject: Re: iGlasses is Available from iChat

Quote
John F. Braun wrote:
Sorry I didn't make it clear, iGlasses is only available from within iChat. I didn't find a feature that would allow flipping of the video, unfortunately.


Still cool. Like I said, putting it in there is the hard part. I'll have to keep this in mind in case anyone else I know ever gets a web camera

Close Name:Guest
Subject: iGlasses works great.

I gladly paid the $8 shareware fee. I have a rather dark room where my iSight is used and the iGlasses program has greatly improved the brightness of my outgoing video.

Larry Spencer

Close Name:Guest
Subject: iGlasses rocks... needed in other apps too...

I wrote extensively about iGlasses. What a neato application. My iSight camera has always been a bit dark as light in my home office is low. iGlasses makes the video for iChat normal. I'd love to see this little application move over to other cool Mac apps like Videocue, which also use the iSight camera. Videocue is a teleprompter with scads of features, but iGlasses is built-in to iChat. If your iSight camera is a bit dark, just download and try iGlasses. The difference is instant.

Tera Patricks - Mac360.com

Close Name:jfbiii Posts: 109 Joined: 06 May 2004
Subject: Hmmm, maybe I could finally use iSight

But if this is only available within iChat that's not going to work, since I use iVisit with PC friends.

Why these BASIC controls aren't available with the iSight itself is beyond me. It's picture quality is worse than the much less expensive Logitech camera I used to have, that Logitech refused to write an OS X driver for.

In fact, between the two companies, trying to own and use a webcam has been the most disappointing experience of OS X. I mean, it's not been the end of the world, but I miss being able to visit with my PC owning family members.

Close Name:jadams Posts: 33 Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Subject: Hmmm

Judging from the comments it looks like there would be a market for a System Preference app for tweaking the iSight output irrespective of what application is using it.

Any developers listening?

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Next Version of iGlasses coming

Hi. I'm the developer of iGlasses. Just wanted to let you all know that the next version will expand the iGlasses window to work with other webcam apps. Also, we'll allow you to flip upside down

-Ken

Close Name:jfbiii Posts: 109 Joined: 06 May 2004
Subject: Sweet

There's definitely a need.

Close Name:Small White Car Posts: 1960 Joined: 02 Jul 2004
Subject: Re: Next Version of iGlasses coming

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
Hi. I'm the developer of iGlasses. Just wanted to let you all know that the next version will expand the iGlasses window to work with other webcam apps. Also, we'll allow you to flip upside down

-Ken


Well, if that's so, get yourself the December 2004 issue of Macworld and check out page 99. Someone asks about this and the only solution they can think of is an arm that you can put the camera on to move it without flipping it.

I'd write a letter to the magazine if I were you!

Close Name:John F. Braun -   TMO Staff Posts: 233 Joined: 11 Jun 2001
Subject: Good News from iGlasses Developer!

Hi Gang--

Looks like Glen, the developer of iGlasses, has been listening to your requests. I just received this update from him:

"I just wanted to let you know that the latest iGlasses version (1.1) adds the following nice features:

-Adds support for the following video applications: iMovie 4, QuickTime Broadcaster, iSpQ, Yahoo! Messenger, GCam, iVisit, and EvoCam.
-Adds the ability to flip the video image upside down or mirrored (iChat only)."

Be sure to give Glen your support! This is a great piece of software.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: 400 mhz G4

You say "Lastly, iGlasses allows the use of the iSight on G3 computers which are slower than 600 MHz. Sure, it may not be the greatest experience, but at least you'll be able to use your iSight." Is there anything in particular that makes you refer to G3s? What about my 400 mhz G4? And can I use this with my firewire camcorder as I don't want to buy an iSight camera and understand iChatAV works with any Firewire camera?
Thanks.

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