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Monday's Mac Gadget
by John F. Braun
Need to Adjust Your iSight? Use iGlasses! |
iGlasses 1.0.1 ($8 Demoware)
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The iSight camera is a slick piece of engineering. For a camera that only weighs a couple of ounces, it packs a lot of features, including the ability to capture video at up to 30 frames per second. It can also capture audio with dual-element microphone that helps filter out noise. This makes it perfect for use with iChat AV, Apple's audio/video conferencing tool. Unfortunately, iChat AV doesn't always produce the best video, especially in low light conditions. The good news is that you can adjust the low-level settings for your iSight; you just need the right software. Enter iGlasses.
The first group of settings can help address the aforementioned issue with the iSight capturing an image that is too dark. Sure, you can turn on some lights, or get a SightLight, but the iSight itself is fully capable of compensating for poor lighting. The first setting you should try is (surprise) Brightness. But don't go crazy, since full brightness may be too bright. The Exposure and Gain settings can also help produce an image that is both bright and properly balanced.
Another aspect of image quality is how it looks once you have one that is bright enough. This is where another group of settings can come in. There's Hue, Saturation, Temperature, and White Balance, which can help make sure that your image looks as you've intended. Lastly, there are settings to help make your image as sharp as possible, such as Focus and Edge Enhancement.

Fine Tune Your iSight Experience with Advanced Settings
For those who don't want to spend all of their time tweaking individual settings, there are several pre-sets which can let you quickly adjust settings for several conditions. There's Extra Bright, Super Bright and Night Vision, for varying levels of low light conditions. The Black & White, Sepia and Crazy Colors can give your image an interesting visual twist, and Macro Focus will allow you to get your iSight as close to the action as possible.

Several Pre-Set Profiles Let You Quickly Adjust the iSight
Lastly, iGlasses allows the use of the iSight on G3 computers which are slower than 600 MHz. Sure, it may not be the greatest experience, but at least you'll be able to use your iSight. So get the most out of your iSight, and get some iGlasses today!
Have another other Gadgets that let you see more? Send an e-mail to John, and he'll give it a look.
Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you with those cool things that we all just have to have on our Macs. Shareware, Freeware, Postcardware, Emailware, and even commercial apps, Monday's Mac Gadget is here to help you find and use the best of these programs.
John is a software engineer who works in the corporate R&D group of a Fortune 500 company, focusing on all aspects of communications technology. He has several degrees that claim he knows what he's doing when it comes to computers. After watching co-workers reinstall Windows, search for device drivers, and experience other horrors during the day, he's glad that he comes home to a Mac (compatible) computer. Have any comments, suggestions, or favorite Gadgets? Drop John a line at
You can also Post Your Comments below.
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Observer Comments
So this thing can do all this stuff and THEN send the altered signal to iChat to use?
That's neat. The last issue of Macworld had a guy asking how to flip the video in iChat (he wanted to hang his camera upside down) and the Macworld writer didn't know of a program that could alter the image and THEN share that image with iChat.
If this does that then it looks like they solved that problem. This doesn't flip the video, it seems, but now that it exists I'm sure it can be expanded in the future.
Mon Nov 01, 2004 12:05 pm Subject: iGlasses is Available from iChat
Mon Nov 01, 2004 12:15 pm Subject: Re: iGlasses is Available from iChat
QuoteJohn F. Braun wrote:
Sorry I didn't make it clear, iGlasses is only available from within iChat. I didn't find a feature that would allow flipping of the video, unfortunately.
Still cool. Like I said, putting it in there is the hard part. I'll have to keep this in mind in case anyone else I know ever gets a web camera
Mon Nov 01, 2004 4:14 pm Subject: Hmmm, maybe I could finally use iSight
But if this is only available within iChat that's not going to work, since I use iVisit with PC friends.
Why these BASIC controls aren't available with the iSight itself is beyond me. It's picture quality is worse than the much less expensive Logitech camera I used to have, that Logitech refused to write an OS X driver for.
In fact, between the two companies, trying to own and use a webcam has been the most disappointing experience of OS X. I mean, it's not been the end of the world, but I miss being able to visit with my PC owning family members.
Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:46 pm Subject: Re: Next Version of iGlasses coming
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
Hi. I'm the developer of iGlasses. Just wanted to let you all know that the next version will expand the iGlasses window to work with other webcam apps. Also, we'll allow you to flip upside down![]()
-Ken
Well, if that's so, get yourself the December 2004 issue of Macworld and check out page 99. Someone asks about this and the only solution they can think of is an arm that you can put the camera on to move it without flipping it.
I'd write a letter to the magazine if I were you!
Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:02 am Subject: Good News from iGlasses Developer!
Hi Gang--
Looks like Glen, the developer of iGlasses, has been listening to your requests. I just received this update from him:
"I just wanted to let you know that the latest iGlasses version (1.1) adds the following nice features:
-Adds support for the following video applications: iMovie 4, QuickTime Broadcaster, iSpQ, Yahoo! Messenger, GCam, iVisit, and EvoCam.
-Adds the ability to flip the video image upside down or mirrored (iChat only)."
Be sure to give Glen your support! This is a great piece of software.
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