I can remember when web cams first came on the market. Very few people I knew had them, and I always imagined that they were using them to do less than desirable things. At that point the resolution on webcams was extremely low, and even if someone was doing something inappropriate in front of their webcam I don’t know that you could really figure out what that inappropriate thing was from looking at the webcam video.
Webcams were the first thing that ever exposed me to digital picture taking. If you wanted to take a photo of yourself to put online, you would do it through a webcam, and proudly display the fuzzy result as your avatar on message boards or on other sites you frequented.
I don’t remember how much the first webcams cost, but I do remember they were much too expensive for me at the time. I have to this day never owned one for fear that I will connect to some site and then accidentally leave the camera on displaying my life to the general public via the internet.
Webcams in general have gotten a lot less expensive nowadays, and serve a much greater purpose. One man in my town is currently fighting in Iraq. His wife gave birth to their child while he was away, and he was able to virtually be there for the experience through watching it on a webcam.
Many businesses now do video conferences rather than phone conferences. In a video conference business people are able to see who they are working with face-to-face rather than merely hear their voice on a telephone. Webcams have revolutionized the way many people do business.
The resolution is much higher on today’s webcams, and many people use their webcam to do weekly podcasts and much more.
How many of you have a webcam? What do you use your webcam for?