Over the last few years there is no doubt mainstream PCs have leant increasingly towards visual applications. The power of visually communicating has grown in acceptance as more and more products and applications reach fruition.
One of the applications that has made it into the popular consciousness has been the USB camera. They are infinitely cheaper than digital cameras or video camcorders because they are captive devices, do not usually have their own power source and the quality of images is not really comparable to the dedicated devices. However the applications they can be set to belies their low-tech standing.
Samsungs AnyCam Couple is a novel marketing exercise as well as a USB camera. Everyone can identify with the television ads showing kids at this time of the year emailing video footage of themselves with Christmas greetings to grandparents overseas, or where it happens in real time across the Web in a video conference. The AnyCam Couple can be purchased as the name suggests as a couple of cameras. One camera is for the purchaser and the other is sent to the loved one. Due to market conditions though, the AnyCam can be broken up and sold separately so those who do not need the second camera are not compelled to buy it.
The cameras are elliptical in shape and nest together on display. The camera body is on the end of a bendable arm that attaches to a big clip. The clip can be used to anchor the camera to a desk or it can be fitted into a desk stand. There is about 1.5 metres of USB cable supplied. The lens can be focussed manually. There is a red LED above the lens showing the camera is drawing power from the USB port and a button on the side to take snapshots.
Installing the AnyCam is a breeze as long as you take it step by step. I made the mistake of trying to jump the gun and found myself unable to access some of the features but if the steps are followed and the driver and other software is installed before attaching the camera to the USB port instead of after then the experience with the AnyCam should be trouble free.
Most PC users will find themselves within the AnyCam Couple application, which can be used as a front end to call on the ancillary applications. A Microsoft ActiveMovie window plays from the camera and the AnyCam Couple window pops up with it. There are five capture resolutions that AnyCam will allow - 160 x 120 pixels is the lowest and 640 x 480 pixels is the highest. The AnyCam is rated 7 to 8 frames per second (fps) and it makes no difference to the frame rate what resolution is used. Performance is marginally improved when the camera is operating in black and white.
AnyCam Couple is the launch point for the other applications that are bundled with the AnyCam. Still and video captures are possible from within AnyCam Couple, the video requiring a file name to capture to or a set time limit. For MPEG capture there is a program called VideOOffice, which allows capture and launch of Outlook Express for emailing of the MPEG video.
PC SnOOp is by the same people who do VideOOffice and this turns the PC and AnyCam into a surveillance system. You can set it as a screen saver or just have it capture as little as a frame per second. Alarms can be set for motion detection and you determine what threshold the sensitivity is set to for the alarm to trigger. Its all a bit cumbersome but as this is the light edition of the software package I am prepared to reserve my judgement on the usefulness of the application. As a stopgap measure it works but serious surveillance would be best left to a dedicated application. The last application that is bundled with the AnyCam is PictureDraw 2000, a basic image editor.
Web camera enthusiasts will embrace the AnyCam bundle for the low price and application software that comes with it. The image quality and frame rate is not great but Samsung is banking on the AnyCam as a value bundle for those who have the need for a pair of cameras and the application software.