PEOPLE have long used webcams on their laptop and desktop computers to add live video to Internet calls. But the face-to-face chats often include grainy, low-resolution images and much crowding around the computer when the whole family wants to get in the picture.
Now wide-angle cameras that pop onto large-screen televisions are on the market; they capture high-definition video and a generous stretch of the living room sofa, too. Several devices, including the TV Cam HD ($199.99) from Logitech, are already on sale, with at least a half-dozen others expected in time for the holiday shopping season, said Richard Doherty, research director of the Envisioneering Group, a market research company in Seaford, N.Y.
The new TV cams are for people who want to add an Internet-based feature to their high-definition TV’s. “You can add this capability for a few hundred dollars or less,” Mr. Doherty said. “Lots of people have HDTVs they’ve bought in the last few years, and they aren’t going to get rid of them for Internet TVs.”
Internet-enabled TVs have software for video chatting, but many models require viewers to buy a suitable add-on camera.
Logitech’s TV Cam HD works with any high-definition television that has an available HDMI port, a common connection. It comes with connectivity to the Internet by way of Ethernet or Wi-Fi, and Skype software that supports high-definition video calling. To control the camera, you use a small remote control to zoom in or pan during a call, or to enter text on the screen.
Mr. Doherty says the new cams have crisp images and an enlarged field of view. “It can pack a real emotional punch when a loved one’s face appears on the big expanse of an HDTV,” he said. “And when you can watch sitting on the couch with the rest of your family, it’s a pleasant, relaxing experience.”
To try out the Logitech cam, I asked a neighbor, Li Wah Lai, a Manhattan-based graphic designer who has tested earlier generations of webcams, to use it for a video visit with her son Ming Alterman, a marketing manager for Coca-Cola in Shanghai.
“It was a totally different family experience from our usual laptop talk,” Ms. Lai said. She and her husband, Daniel Alterman, as well as their younger son, Mickey, all joined in for the Sunday-morning video chat with Ming. “I thought it would be the same,” she said. “But it wasn’t.”
There was no jostling in front of the camera, as there typically is when using a laptop, to guarantee that everyone could be seen and heard.
“It was very relaxing,” she said. They did not have to constantly ask Ming: “Can you see us? Can you hear us?”
And Ming became more comfortable, too, she said: “It was more of a family event.”
Clifford I. Nass, a Stanford communication professor, said the sight of familiar faces in high definition was especially appealing.
“It’s not just the pixels,” he said. “It’s the ability to detect facial expressions more accurately. The brain loves having this kind of information.”
THE wide-angle lens could also contribute to the emotional impact of video chatting, saidJeremy Bailenson, director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford. A generous field of view, he said, “plays a big part in creating the feeling that the digital other you are talking with is actually in the room with you.”
The wide field of view permits more glimpses of nonverbal interactions, he said, like the exchange of glances during the chat.
With the Logitech device, all calls are placed and received by using the remote control. Because there is no keyboard, entering text can be tedious: you have to click up, down, right or left on the remote, for example, to select each letter of the name of new Skype contacts from a keyboard projected on the screen. Ms. Lai started off slowly with this skill, but within minutes her fingers were flying.
You can also use the remote to adjust the image you are projecting, zooming in, panning or tilting.
The device requires users to have Skype service. which is free for calls between its users. Incoming calls to the cam will ring out even when the television is turned off — you’ll need to grab the remote and turn on the TV.
And if you are still in your bathrobe, you can also leave the call for voice mail.
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