looking back...

I know to some it looks like I have walked far on this path, but the truth is that I am no further than where I was years ago. I have gone around in circles; Lost and confused, time and again I have asked myself where..why? I have spent all this time and yet I am no closer to an answer. So I try to diverge myself from the known and venture into the all consuming darkness, hoping that somewhere along the twisting path I will find what I'm looking for.

Howto: use your iPhone as webcam in Linux (without WebcamStudio)

So this is the story - my laptop (yes it's a bit of a relic) doesn't come with a webcam. While I do have one of those tiny USB webcams, it has never been very reliable. It sucks in low-light, and the resolution is shitty at best - and don't even get me started on those wires. As is the case with many such stories, necessity thus drove me to find this nifty little solution.

I found a nice little app on the AppStore called iWebCamera which sounded like it could do just the trick! according to their website, iWebCamera could stream the images/video from you iPhone's camera to your computer. The catch here of course, is that you need their "driver" software installed on the computer. This is all fine..if you're on a Mac or Windows machine. Linux users aren't completely left out though, as the very handy "WebcamStudio" does support iWebCamera. However, the problem is that the current version (0.56 at the time of writing) doesn't support v4l2 (which I needed for skype compatibility)

*note; v4l2 support in WebcamStudio is coming in the next release. You're welcome to wait until it comes out. I did it this way because I didn't need the extra features WebCam studio.

let's get started after the break!