The advent of broadband connectivity to the Internet gave us not only the opportunity to surf with greater speed and comfort but also the opportunity to talk with colleagues, friends and relatives residing in distant cities, be able to hear their voice and see their face. Most of those who enjoy video chatting over the Net do have a web camera already. Most of those who’d love to chat or dream of video chatting are getting ready to make the final step to the release of their dream and buy their first webcam, also likely have some other digital camera – at least photo or camcorder. But if you think your webcam can only broadcast your lovely face to someone on the other end of the cable – you are not quire right. In just a moment, that “useless" device can become your all-seeing eye, digital nanny, guardian angel or watchman – all you’d need to do for that is install the right software.



Willing Webcam is the software that promises to magically turn just about any video-capturing device into a broad range of handy solutions, whether that’s for business or pleasure. Basically, it captures streaming video or images from the camera and saves it on disk or sends it to your website. But the opportunities that simple, as it seems at first, functionality strike down the imagination.

Of course, the first thing that comes into our minds when we hear “webcam" is video chat over the Internet. And although Willing Webcam doesn’t have a built-in interface for video conferencing, it integrates perfectly with Skype, Yahoo, AOL, MSN and other instant messengers, easily resolving hardware compatibility problems that occur with quite a number of camera brands.

With Willing Webcam you can easily share your real-time streaming video with your friends or relatives via your website. No matter how far you are away from each other; they can simply open your webpage and enjoy seeing you. To make your webcam page even more eye-drawing, you can embed all kinds of text labels, pictures or video effects, again, in real time. That might be especially handy for scientists, who would easily comment their research online. Certainly, you can also use your webcam for taking snapshots of something or someone. The quality of the shots, by the way, will be quite good for posting the images online. But that’s still too common. How about having your webcam handle a real challenge?

Put your webcam to guarding your house, car or any other property for you. Like a faithful watchdog, it will scan the darkness trying to capture even the slightest motion and then instantly alert you if it detects an intrusion or drive-away. Of course, it won’t be able to charge an army of soldier robots to tie the intruder's hands or stop the thief, but it will provide sufficient data for the police department, including the intruder's or thief's face made out in high resolution.

Parents, using Willing Webcam, can turn their webcam into a digital babysitter. No matter where they are at the moment, through their office computer or mobile phone connected to the Internet, they can quickly take a look and make sure your baby is okay. Nurses can take advantage of this functionality when watching after their ill or disabled patients; all rooms can be overseen from a single location, and care can be given to the patients promptly.

Besides webcam appliances, Willing Webcam can handle camcorder's and digital cameras with a FireWire, S-Video or composite port, video capturing USB devices, TV tuners and network cameras that can generate JPEG or MJPEG image at the output. The software supports image rotation, tilting, and scaling for Logitech Orbit (Sphere) cameras.

They say, for infinitely long time one can watch how fire burns, how water flows, and how someone else works. Webcams naturally meet people's need for watching someone else doing something. If you direct your streaming video to your website, the tandem of your webcam with this software can draw an army of curious visitors to your website. And once you get the feeling of the software, you will be able to discover even more new ways to make your daily life more protected, comfortable and entertaining.