decker labs

Webcam Snapshot Tool

February 22nd, 2010 | Category: Development,Experiments,Flash,Photography,Video

Every once and a while, I find that I need to just take a quick snapshot with my webcam at work. Since I’m on a PC, so I don’t have Apple’s pre-installed Photobooth app, or any other simple program (that I’m at least aware of). I also didn’t want to install any bulky 3rd party software that might come with the webcam that I’m using, since all I need in order for it to work is the driver, which more or less Windows installed all by itself. Photoshop has an option to capture from webcam, but the util is pretty limited as it only lets me capture a very small thumbnail size image.

So I decided to make a really simple webcam capture utility using Flash. Even if there was some really simple app out there, as I am sure there is, the developer urge inside me just wanted to create one anyways. I figure this way is pretty cool, since all you need is the webcam driver (so that the webcam actually works) and Flash Player 10 installed (which is current at 94% penetration). It’s just a simple little tool, you can re-size the image and save it as a jpeg. That’s really all the functionality that I needed from it.

Anyways, you can check it out here:
experiments.eric-decker.com/webcam_snapshot

I’ve also used it to take some macro snapshot, as apparently my webcam can focus insanely close on things, and I’ve uploaded them to my flickr account:
flickr.com/photos/ericdecker/sets/72157623403965642

Macro Thumbnails


8 comments

8 Comments so far

  1. Caio February 22nd, 2010 12:14 PM

    Wow, those macro shots look amazing!
    Can’t believe they were taken by a webcam.

  2. melaw August 19th, 2010 4:02 PM

    Thank you so much for the tool… I was looking for exactly this! It’s even downloadable! Great!!

  3. leslie November 20th, 2010 11:18 PM

    all i saw was white… webcam light does not turn on (indicating that it is in use). Adobe even asked my permission to use my webcam..(which I of course allowed).

  4. Vladi December 21st, 2010 9:20 AM

    Just stumbled upon this webcam tool- it is great- works like a breeze once you allow flash to have access to your camera.

    I liked the macro pictures in flickr too- will experiment with my HP autofocus webcam some day soon.

  5. Eric February 15th, 2011 9:23 AM

    Sorry about that. I’m planning to redo this anyways (someday), so hopefully I’ll have some better QA this time. Thanks for reporting.

  6. Rakesh Waghela March 22nd, 2011 2:50 AM

    Dear Eric,

    If you are going to put effort in fine tuning this small but great utility.. Please..please please.. make it configurable in such a manner that this tool can upload captured image to Server on specific URL( by mean of a normal HTTP POST )

    regards,
    Rakesh

  7. Adam Kessel June 30th, 2011 10:07 AM

    Same problem as Vladi above. Lenovo x201. Webcam light is on, snapshot is all white.

  8. Adam Kessel June 30th, 2011 10:17 AM

    Actually, I withdraw my comment! It turns out I needed to close Skype before it would work.

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