With the popularity of social networking sites like YouTube and MySpace and Studio Dell, users are investing in multimedia devices to keep up with today's media sharing trends.
E-mails are as interactive as ever with personalized videos and pictures sent to family and friends. Some of you might have bought one of those clunky external webcams to chat online or record a message for e-mail, but do you remember how annoying it was trying to prop it up so you could record yourself? Give these hassles the boot and meet the integrated notebook webcam that's built into the computer bezel.
Dell decided to put integrated webcams into all of our notebooks because our customers are telling us that they want to add video to their communications. So whether it be an e-mail or a video log or sending video to grandma, people are using video in all of their communications.
So having it built right in is really handy, and it's really kind of a response to what customers are telling us they want to do with their computers.
So here's how it works. You open up your webcam software first. Most of these notebooks come with capturing software already. And in this case, we have the Dell Webcam Center. You know when the webcam is gathering information because you see the blue light come on. Here you can take pictures, videos, chat online, and add special effects. >> So if I want to start a video chat, for example.
I would go to my choice of software, either Yahoo or MSN or Skype, and essentially the software detects whether I have a camera or not. So I'm going to load up Windows Live Messenger. It will ask me for my e-mail address and password. Once I'm logged in, it will ask if I want to start a video chat. It detects that I have video available, and I just need to find someone to chat with. If they have a camera, I can see them.
Even it if they don't have a camera, I can project my video image to them. So it can be a one-way or two-way video chat. For example, if I'm chatting with grandma and she doesn't have the latest built-in technology so I can see her, it doesn't matter. I can still show my technology to grandma so she can see the kids on the video screen.
But we haven't gotten to the good stuff yet. What's really cool about the Dell webcam software is its special effects capability. I can manipulate my image to look like some really whacked out images. This is what I'd look like with hair. Probably more hair than my wife would like me to have.
So when I'm capturing video, there's a lot of different things that I can do with this. If I'm chatting or if I'm recording a video to send to somebody, obviously, I can simply get my beautiful face in there, but I can also do a number of special effects with the standard included software that comes with the Dell Webcam Center.
So I can just go over here and enable my video effects. Like I say, I can add this to videos that I'm shooting, or I can add this while I'm chatting with someone. So as you can see here, I've added some crocodile eyes. And it actually detects my eyes and my nose, and the software is smart enough to detect where it should put the fun graphic. So I can do a lot of things. I can turn myself into a werewolf.
As you can see here, I'm morphing into a werewolf. And now, if I'm chatting with someone who I don't want to see all of my face, I'm a werewolf today. Or if I just want to chill out and look like, add a hat and glasses to my face. So I can add myself to still pictures and things like that.
That's me there in the King of Hearts. Turn myself into an outline. Turn myself into water as I move around. So lots of fun things you can do. Like I say, you can do this for a video. You can capture a video. Or while you're chatting with friends, you can add these special effects.
