These days most new laptops feature an integrated webcam, often with
an impressive number of megapixels. Users with older, and desktop
computers still have to rely on an external one.
But if you’re
not in a long distance relationship, or regularly make conference calls
for work, chances are you’ve never even bought one.
If you need
to make a few Skype calls or want to start a Hangout on Google Plus, but
don’t have the necessary equipment at hand, don’t run off to the
hardware store just yet! If you have an Android smartphone with camera,
you can simply use your phone instead. Given, the framerate will not be
on par with a decent store-bought webcam, but it’s more than good enough
for a sporadic video chat.
1. Prerequisites
The tool we’re going to use is called SmartCam. The application is twofold; to use it you’ll need to install both the
Android client and the
desktop client.
This desktop client is available for Windows and Linux computers. In
this article we’re going to focus on Windows, but the process is similar
if you’re using Linux.
Make sure you’ve installed both applications before continuing to the next step.
2. Configuration
There are two ways to connect SmartCam to your computer; Wi-Fi and BlueTooth. We’ll show you how to connect over Wi-Fi.
First open SmartCam on your Android phone, press the menu button on your phone to show the available options, and select Settings. Here, select TCP/IP (WiFi) as your Connection type, and enter the local IP address of your computer under Remote server.
You
can find the local IP address of a Windows computer using Command
Prompt. Open command prompt by searching for it in your Applications, or
by running “cmd” in the Start menu.
In Command Prompt, enter
“ipconfig /all” and press enter. There’ll be a lot of information here; a
block of data for every (virtual) network adapter. If your computer
also accesses the internet through Wi-Fi, look for the IPv4 address of
your Wireless LAN adapter. If your computer uses a cable to connect to
the internet, look for an ethernet adapter.
Open SmartCam on your computer as well, and make sure the connection
type in the preferences pane is also set to use TCP/IP (WiFi).
3. Connecting
Turn on the Wi-Fi connectivity on your
Android, and connect your phone to the same network that your computer
is on. With SmartCam already open on your computer, launch the
application on your Android phone and select Menu -> Connect WiFi.
In
less than a minute, the image of your Android phone camera should
appear in the SmartCam application on your desktop, with the video
resolution and framerate visible below the video stream. If you’re so
inclined, you can also record this input to a video file on your
desktop. To use your makeshift webcam in another application, simply
select SmartCam as your webcam when prompted.
