Slashdot Mirror
A Full-Time 2-Way Video Link To Grandparents?
uid7306m writes "We have elderly parents who live a long way off. However, my technological radar tells me that it's possible to set up a 24/7 video link between our kitchen and theirs. It'd be good for our kids and good for the parents, and we can now get pretty cheap nearly unlimited broadband connections at this end (UK). What's the best way to do it? Has anyone tried it? On the far end, it ought to have, in Dilbert's(TM) immortal words 'One big button on it, and we push it for you in the factory.'"
I use Apple's iChat. Of course you need a Mac but I talk for hours full screen to my relatives around the world. With two semi-good broadband connections, it works flawlessly and the quality is second to none (in this price range). Of course the downside is that you'd both need Macs.
24/7? Guess no more going out to the kitchen in your undies for a late night snack.
Unless you want your kids to see grandpa giving it to grandma over the kitchen sink, I wouldn't recommend it.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
In the us unlimited broadband may be going away and isp's like comcarp do don like steaming video.
... but that might be too complicated.
I could see some advantages of streaming both ways to large flat panels. I think it would be a bit intrusive, though, because as much as I love my parents I'm very glad there is a 10 hour distance between us.
If all else fails you could just do a webcast. While interestingly linked, I just can't get into the concept too much for fear that one day I might see my mother in law staring back at us ;)
Cheech Marin? Is that you?
do it from both ends and view at each side.
webcam video streaming has been available for years.
I am sure that there are other similar products, and at under $150 a piece, something like the DLink DVC-1000 here: http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=1&pid=8 would be hard to beat in terms of simplicity.
Those willing to give up freedom for the sake of short term security, deserve neither freedom nor security.
I have tried it on numerous occasions - it is solid for home-home comminications.
Also, everything is just a click away!
You can also use skype but the quality is not consistent. Also, too many clicks.
Are you with a decent ISP? (If there is such a thing)
If you are with Virgin Media then you will easily exceed their bandwidth limits which you can find at the bottom of this page.
I'm not sure what other ISPs set their limits at (or if they publish them at all like VM do) but I'm pretty sure you would exceed them also.
I'd think about the possibility of other options, such as simply using a video-call when required. Most of the time you would simply be streaming video of 2 empty kitchens to each other wouldn't you?
If you have a Linux distribution, there is 'ekiga' which allows you to run video conferencing.
But I've always wondered if there was something simpler that wouldn't need to go through a third party server, and would allow the webcam window to be resized.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Don't slouch, eat a banana!
Um, you sure you want to do this?
Install Skype at both ends and start a video call between them. Enable full screen mode and presto, you have a 24/7 live video link.
Yes, iChat would be ideal. Aside some initial expense, just go out and get a couple of iMacs and run iChat (or Adium) between them. One click happiness.
Get an embedded video-conferencing system.
Polycom e.g. has some nice systems, one of the smaller ones is the V700.
They come with a pricetag of 2500 EUR but work. I guess your grandparents don't wanna fiddle with the software on their machine or something similar.
there are so many options out there this topic is kind of ridiculous. I fail to see what you need that is different from everything that is out there.
I've often thought that full res, projector sized displays could project one room into another with a similar setup for family use. Maybe better than just a single camera - perhaps an array of cameras - giving the input. With the right setup it could almost look as if a wall is just a hole to another room, thousands of miles away. I wonder if this effect could be increased - projection on a one way screen, with cameras behind to change perspective which tracks the observer on the 'other side'. Couldn't this give a changing correct perspective view for both ends? Probably for one viewer only - or maybe with polarised shutter glasses or something it could display for everyone? If you work hard enough, a magic wall seems eminently possible. On a side note I've always thought that a rubber sheet on a wall could be a terrific method of contact - with an array of small rams on the other side to deform it and a copy at the other end, with rams able to feedback a force - you push a handprint into it and it's transmitted elsewhere and you'd be able to touch across the net.
At your gramp's kitchen, two options:
If you're not very adventurous: Any computer. Any video conferencing software (such as Skype). VPN software (such as OpenVPN). VNC software (such as RealVNC). The best is if you get a computer where the screen and computer are in the same enclosure. You don't even hook up a keyboard or a rat. If something happens, you lgo on their desktop thru the VPN and VNC and click on Skype again or whatever.
If you are very adventurous. Buy a nice flat screen display. Take the damn thing apart and get rid of all the crap except the screen and whatever signal massaging hardware is hooked up to it. Get a single board x86 computer that has a watchdog chip on it and built-in flash and tons of RAM for your software installation. Attach it and the screen's signal massaging hardware to one side of a rectangular piece of sheet metal the size of the display, and attach the display on the other side of it. Make that sheet metal a bit taller than the display. Get a camera with built-in microphone; take it apart, and attach it above the display. This probably requires drilling a few holes, tapping is optional, and will probably require some nuts, standoffs, etc. Run the wires however you can, preferably the shortest distance possible. Make an enclosure for this out of wood or something. Install Linux, OpenVPN, X, VNC, and your video conferencing software (something like Ekiga, hacked to automatically initiate a connection to you upon startup) into the flash in such a manner that upon power-up or reset, the entire flash partition is copied into RAM that's treated as a partition and booted from there. At all other times, the flash is never touched. Upon the computer crashing, locking up, or being h4x0red/0wn3d/etc., (which might happen once in a while), the watchdog will reboot it, so a fresh, original filesystem image is loaded back into the RAM and rebooted. This can happen in a matter of a minute from reset thru the videoconferencing software coming up again. With OpenVPN, you can always log in and fix something unexpected if that happens. While we're at it, build yourself one of these. And for extra credit, document the whole process with photos and videos and post it online for everyone to respect you in awe for being such a 1337 h4x0rz yourself. Heck, you might even be able to make a business out of selling a bunch of these. Hint: If you want to do that, stock up on a bunch of the same model display, because those change all the time and you can never buy the same exact thing (with same hardware attached) twice. If you attempt to go through one of those flatscreen stocking companies, the same display will cost you double and not come with the added hardware.
McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
We have bought a pair of Grandstream videophone. The are cheap and much easier to use than PC for older people as they are basically ... telephones.
You can even setup Grandpa's one in auto-answer mode but I would not recommend it for obvious privacy issues as one of the comments above maliciously reminded.
AH and to overcome NAT and dynamic IP address issues, you have to setup a hosted SIP proxy and media relay such as Asterisk. I cheat here as this the very business of my company.
By the way if you want a pair of free SIP accounts and the Grandstream videophone, we could sell them to you.
...when Gramps and Granny pass away live over the video link... oh dear! On the other hand it's good for children to learn about death at an early age.
M0571y H@rml355.
Umm haven't you heard? You only get that if you dont use it.
Start doing 24/7 video and you will find your connection throttled, or gone.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
If you can get gold plated machines for 5 grand, please fill me in as that is a real steal.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
There are a variety of IP surveillance systems on the market designed for people who want to monitor their vacation homes, etc. Most of these are pretty inexpensive and easy to configure. That might be easier than building your own system using PCs.
This company seems to offer a wide variety of solutions, some standalone, some PC based: www.fgeng.com
Why not just rename "Ask Slashdot" to "Someone Fucking Think For Me"?
Seriously. Whatever happened to the days of "Hey, I wanted to do 'x', and so, here's how I did it - because I'm a nerd"?
Whatever happened to the days when questions were prefaced with "I wanted to accomplish , and HERE is what I've done so far to do so - and here's the results of that - does anyone have any other ideas"?
NOW DAYS, all the questions come in the form of "What's the best way to do it?" - which translates, basically, to: "Tell me how to do it".
WTF?
This is NOT "News for Nerd, Stuff That Matters".
It's a sad commentary on the "state of the art" of supposed Nerds here, too true.
And the editors.
msn.com: free, worked great (better than yahoo) used with logmein.com to control their machine. Single cam to Single Cam.
I don't see why everyone is recommending complicated video conferencing setups. Just set up apache on each end to stream from your webcam and use iptables to block connections from any IP except the one on the other end. If you don't have static IPs write a little script to update iptables on the other end every time the local IP changes. Then use dyndns so you never lose track of the other end (only apply the whitelist on the streaming port so ssh doesn't get blocked. Then use ssh keys). Then all you have to do is point firefox to their dyndns address/port.
he hasn't moved in days.
You might try IP phones with video support. I'm not sure if you'd need a server in between, but you can build one of those using a free disto such as PBX in a Flash or Trixbox.
I do this with my wife between South America and the US when I'm away working.
We got a 20" iMac for the kitchen. For the first week it felt invasive, but hearing 'Honey, where did you hide the zester?' grows on you. It makes being on the road much more tolerable.
The bonus is being able to watch movies/TV (we got an eyetv), lookup recipes, make grocery lists, etc.
LAN Camera + Hamachi on both sides!
he demonstrated by A plus B minus C divided by Z that the sheep must be red, and die of the rot
Pretty much pick any Axis IP camera and you're golden. I've had Axis video links up for months at a time, no problem. Even broadband outages don't matter as the feed will reconnect if you use decent software (standard video stream, use software of your choice).
and we can now get pretty cheap nearly unlimited broadband connections at this end (UK).
Sure you can. We have had "unlimited" connections here in the States for some time now (snicker snicker.)
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
There is also one of those Ojo videophones they have on NCIS.
You made no mention of what your hardware was, nor even whether or not you had a video camera.
A few years ago, I bought some DLink webcams to set up a custom home video surveillance system, with remote monitoring from work. I believe that the model number was DCS-5300. But since they're mounted on-high, I'd rather not climb up on a ladder to find out for sure.
For bandwidth and security reasons, I chose to get the 10/100Base-T versions, not wireless. The wired versions were also cheaper. You're going to have to run power cords to the wherever you mount them anyway, so why not an Ethernet wires at the same time?
They're designed to be always on (for home surveillance), as you indicated you wanted, 24/7. I don't even remember if they have an on/off switch. They draw considerably less power than a computer and webcam combination.
They came with their own Web server and have their own IP addresses on my home LAN. Of course, they're configurable with a Web page interface.
You wanted using the system to be a no-brainer, presumably to help out your less-than-techno-savvy kids and parents. You can't get any more simple than these webcams. You just browse to them with any Web browser. You can set the browsers up with Bookmarks/Favorites to make getting there simple.
The cams serve up a Web page with the camera feed on it. If you've configured them for permission to control the camera, the page will also have controls to pan, tilt and zoom.
If you use a broadband router as a firewall, you'll have to configure the router to expose the cam's server port to the Internet. If you're concerned about the security of doing that, note that the Web server software resides on a chip. It doesn't have a disk drive. It isn't even big enough to contain a disk drive. It's as secure as the Web server that comes built into most broadband routers these days.
As I said, I bought them years ago. There are bound to be other brands by now besides DLink that do the same things, if you want to shop around.
Live n00d grandmother's ready to frog 24/7!!!!!!! Sign up now!!!!!!!!
There are over 36 million lines of COBOL code in the world, and they are all raping children.
It probably has been said before, but i'd use open source software in any case; you can probably even if you don't know the toolkit used in detail, adapt the program so that it e.g. reconnects when disconnected, and maybe simplify the user interface.
Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
1) Go back in time 24 years
2) Fill out name changes for you and your grandparents. Your new name is Charrington and their new names are Winston and Julia.
3) ???
4) PROFIT!!!
We use something that might fit your need - its an offshoot of the CCTV business, and it goes over the wire.
Basically, its a little black box, which takes a couple of coax inputs and sends the resulting video to any clients connected via TCP/IP. It works over the internet (even over NAT, you just have to forward the right port), has a Windows client and is fairly cheap. One box each end, one client each end and you are done.
The company we buy from is Vista, the boxes are various models of the SmartTel range but we mainly use the VLS-04TR. Norbain are their UK distributor.
http://www.vista-cctv.com/products/cat:SmartTel_-_Transmit_Only/catID:P47B5F3A42CC83/
Knock yourself out.
iRobot has a very nice device ConnectR.
Apparently they do not sell it just yet. And yes, I would be careful buying it because my mom could be very... um... advisable?
Skype, together with '1 click VNC' (a.k.a quadruple click VNV) and you are on your way. They don't need to press the buttons if you can do it for them.
I used to develop for software company that provides something pretty close. They have to clients CR and CG and the CG has pretty much complete video controls over the other side, mic and speaker volume, echo cancellation so the grandparents have to have no computer experience at all, since all controls including starting and ending the call rely on the CG. So if you are looking for a non-free solution http://www.caregivertech.com/ is a very nice solution, (they also have medical history and things like that in there client)
Do it the right way: Cisco Telepresence. Buy yourself a 20 Mbps circuit from the local telco, do the same with the grand parents. Each system is only 300,000 - but I bet you can get a discount if you do a press release. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps8333/index.html You didn't specify cost as a problem. Do it right!
Several have already said it, but I had to endorse iChat.
I have 7x24 video conferencing up and running with a remote test team in India. The idea is that it is muted unless one or the other side wants to say something.
We tried both Skype Video (another frequently mentioned option) and iChat. We are staying with iChat due to the simplicity, robustness, and quality.
With Skype we had the connection drop multiple times in a night. With iChat it runs and runs and runs.
With Skype, we had significant video and audio artifacts all of the time. With iChat they are infrequent occurrences.
For Skype I had to write up an instruction guide. With iChat folks just got it.
So, I say go with iChat.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
On behalf of my fellow elderlies (I'm only honorary, at 53, but I'm in training), you do not want a 24/7 link. It needs to have a call siggnal and an on/off switch. You, and we, do not need to deal with your trauma of seeing grandpa bending grandma over the sink for a sneak-up quickie.
Don't think we don't. You don't want to think about it at all, so consider the reasons why you don't want to.
If you want a global on switch, fine. Let us have an override off switch. Put an hour delay cut-off on it if you like. We're old, it takes us more than the 10 minutes you kids take. (Just wait until you get to enjoy that aspect). And we're gladly admit that an hour is plenty, and we should be looked in on after that. Especially if we spend the whole hour.
On the other hand, I've heard said "We wouldn't even bother to do it anymore, but the kids like to watch." If your elders have that mindset, go ahead and give them the means to offer you instruction 24/7. You don't think they haven't learned a few novel tricks in 40 or so years?
Got a problem with this? Get over yourself. You're halfway to this age yourself, and I'm betting when you get there you'll have no plans on stopping.
Go ahead and mod this funny, since you don't have a "+1 elders' wisdom" mod.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Ekiga supports video now, doesn't it? Should be as easy as customising a light WM to only run it, or if you want this as a normal desktop too just use Xfce designed to be more user-friendly (use your judgement for what's user-friendly) and run Ekiga constantly.
Much better than skype. Bonus points if you can encrypt the signal.
Instant two way video conferencing with multiple parties *if* needed.
Just create the accounts and bookmark the user unique URLs for each end of the conservation.
Tokbox also works with any web browser that utilize Flash 9, so it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
http://www.tokbox.com/
Facebook is billions of individual "Skinner Boxes." And if you use it you are the pigeon!
I recommend two mid-grade logitech webcams, and a projector on either end. Install the webcam in the middle of a large blank white wall, with the USB cable exiting the wall in a distant corner to connect to the machine. Then project your screen fullscreen directly on the same wall.
If you use the entire wall, and get a good enough connection (I often do in Skype), you will have a wall that opens up virtually to another house with the identical setup.
Setting this up for a full time connection with a cheap extra PC is a no-brainer. I recommend MicroXP, since it is fast, stable, and has all the additional BS removed. I seem to get better skype performance under windows than under Linux.
In this way, your home can be connected to another home with the illusion of presence in a way that is natural to the human mind.
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
Use Skype with a script. You should be able to set up something where you can enable this entirely from your end!
I'm an engineer at tokbox.com, and we aim to be super simple video chat. It's all in flash, which is often pre-installed. Flash supports most webcams and all browsers.
You can set up an account for yourself, and then give your parents a url tokbox.com/, which you can set as their default home page. Then there is an AIR based client if you want to leave running all the time on your end.
You likely won't get away with the bandwidth you'll use doing this -- especially if it's Comcast. Inside the first month, they'll be all up in your business, threatening to shut you down, etc. because you dare to use the bandwidth you're paying for. I don't imagine it's going to be any better with any other ISP either, unless you buy business-class service, in which case they have less of a right to "manage" the bandwidth you're paying (way too much) for. A better idea would be to have a video link-on-demand instead of 24/7; sorry, pal. :-/
Can you imagine the trauma of your kids (or you) walking into the kitchen to see grannie and grampa going at it across the kitchen table thinking that because they turned off the tv nobody can see them.
Seriously though I could see it being quite intrusive, even if it could easily be turned off and on.
Try skype. It's really easy.
make automator do the rest
a custom big red button icon for the automator script
whose alias is in the startup items
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
>and we can now get pretty cheap nearly unlimited broadband connections at this end (UK). Not upstream you can't.
a 24/7 video link is your hat. Take it . . . and drop it over the camera when you're doing anything you don't want the viewer to see.
Tech Public Policy stuff
People have bemoaned the "decline in culture" of the young people for centuries. It's bullshit. Life goes on, just in ways different from when you were growing up. I know that's scary, but you can either get used to it or you can turn into a crotchety old bastard that no one likes.
Re: The "Google-it" culture. That's simply the democratization of access to information. The percentage of the population that has the interest and ability to create original solutions probably hasn't changed (or perhaps has increased but the signal is lost among the noise).
Considering the depths this thread has gone to, did you misspell streaming on purpose?
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
You can also access Leopard's screen sharing feature from within iChat, if you ever have the need to tweak their computer after it's been set up. I use it to help Mom when solitaire crashes.
http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1160240&seqNum=5
There are self contained WiFi and Ethernet webcams (Most have a mini web server built in). That, a router and a Dynamic IP Name Service ( http://www.dyndns.org/ ) will finish off the bill. Many routers have built in support for some Dynamic IP Name Services. You set the router to forward Port 80 (Or whatever port the webcam ues) to the IP address of the webcam. Then you just point the computer at the URL and you are seeing still images or streaming video. Most Webcams even support a password system so only those who you want to have access will. No dedicated computer, software, or anything like that.
You can get a state of the art high definition (720p30) video conferencing system for $5000 per end from LifeSize Communications (www.lifesize.com). You would need to add a flat panel to that and give it 1Mb/s in both directions but you get a push button interface and the experience is nearly like looking through a window. It is very easy to suspend disbelief and forget there is anything between you.
If you can't spend that much, then the next best thing is an iMac running iChat. It beats the pants off any pc/skype combination for usability and quality.
Full disclosure - I'm an engineer for LifeSize.
I've always toyed with the idea of a tablet PC ( as it has some touch features) and the possibility of wall mounting it with a camera(s). In Linux it should be fairly simple to make a pretty dumb interface that would have very simple choices like "Camera on/Camera off", "Call Kids", etc The other choice is a throw away laptop wall mounted in to a larger flat screen (but you lose the touch ability and have to come up with another interface, maybe a custom keyboard attachment with some basic buttons labeled as above. if you can run ethernet to it, it should be easy for you to troubleshoot it/maintain it if there is ever a problem. One key thing might be a camera that can move. The grandparents might not always want to be directly in front of it in the kitchen. Add tracking software and/or the ability for your to re-point the camera.
Just remember in this kind of case you get what you pay for.
He's talking about a video link, so "steaming" surely is the word he's looking for.
I hate printers.
I agree.. a set-top box is gonna be your best bet if you never want to troubleshoot it. You can look into Polycom, BrightCom, Tandberg, LifeSize... they all have "cheaper" solutions now.
As for your end, you don't need a crazy setup. Especially if you're more tech savy. You can just use Ekiga (it's SIP compatible and will work with these systems)
Regardless of which solution you go with, you should look int MPLS or some type of Quality of Service from your ISP so that you conversation with Granny isn't interrupted by something like an email download or a music stream.
oh one more thing.. echo cancelling. you'll probably have a horrible time dealing with echo or non-full duplex issues if you go with any of the software-only solutions.
Packet8 has had standalone video units for at least the last 4 years that I recall. I seem to recall that they were 'featured' on one of the seasons of 24.
It's VOIP so works just like a phone but with full motion video. Seems pretty grandparent proof. Broadband required.
Video Phone
In the us unlimited broadband may be going away and isp's like comcarp do don like steaming video.
Please. In the 80s it was going to cost extra for a modem to use a phone line. Now it's "oh noes, broadband isn't going to be unlimited anymore!".
The Internet here is not an extension of the government or a communist party. They are independent companies who will advertise "unlimited" services as they wish, unless something happens to disrupt the model. That hasn't happened, only Internet speculation has happened.
Question: does anyone do higher-resolution videoconferencing than 320x240? iChat does (640x480, I believe), but for better or worse I'm on a PC, and Skype's hi-def videoconf requires a whole litany of prerequisites - dual-core processor, specific Logitech cameras, etc, etc. I bought a Philips webcame that can do 640x480, 90fps, but nothing that can come even close to that. I certainly don't need 90fps, but 640x480 would be much nicer than 320x240. (I say that - is that even the case? Would lower-resolution but higher FPS feel more "there"?)
So - is there any software that I'm missing? Many thanks.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
seems like a easy and free / multi platform and open source solution is the VLVC plugin for VLC
http://www.vlvc.net/en-home.html
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
SightSpeed http://sightspeed.com/ has the best video quality, it's free, multi-platform, and can run it 24 hours/day. You can also set it for relatively low bandwidth (250~350 kbps) so you don't slow down other things and the quality is still very good.
How does this scenario grab you? You use your skype, and the next time you sign onto eBay, they try and sell you things based on words they heard during your phone calls.
The Japanese have had porn for a while, but they are clever about it. For instance they have porn magazine vending machines on the street, but a cover comes down over the magazines till after 8PM, then you can see what you would be buying. They also have beer vending machines. In some ways they are very advanced.
Just to second the suggestion for iChat and point out that iChat has a (command-line enabled) AUTO ANSWER facility. So when you ring your GrandParents they don't even need to click to answer.
I don't find the iChat "Chat Request" panel to be that intuitive (for GrandParents). It just displays a pane with the request annoucement but no buttons. You need to click on the panel to make it expand to show the accept/reject buttons.
Auto-Answer can also help if GrandParents aren't computer literate or have trouble seeing the small on-screen pointer.
Of course, most people don't like the invasion of privacy that this allows but then if you are thinking of video-chatting 24x7 this should not really be a problem.
Google for how to do it ...
Cheers,
Ashley.
Mrs. Fletcher uses an audio link only system, and it works exactly as promised. The minute she used hers and said "I've fallen and I can't get up" people knew it was as reliable as anyone would ever need.
I looked at your UID before posting...
Err...
If sanity is your option then, c'mon... These are in-laws to one of them. No one, and I mean no one on the whole planet, really wants to live with their in-laws.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
try www.mebeam.com . You can have up to 8 people in a room with full video and audio. Free.
Of course there is.
Skype does allow 640x480 video on any camera that supports that resolution, you just need to force the resolution in config.xml for Skype to use it. Works great on my Mac and PC.
- Raynet --> .
taped to the wall with Skype on auto-answer.
You'd probably get away with a 701 but a 901 has better power management.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Thanks to QoS I sometimes find video streaming is certainly a steaming something...
24/7? Even if you were allowed to do it, it doesn't mean you should do it. Just think if this guy, plus a few million others, start streaming video of their empty kitchens to each other. Comcast et. al. are already screaming "We have to manage our congestion" so let's all squander our connections to prove them right.
try www.tokbox.com
Works pretty nice!
I used to work for a company called Caregiver Technologies. We specialized in videoconferencing systems for people with Alzheimer's disease and their caregivers.
Unlike some of the suggestions you're getting here, this system was designed to be completely unmanned and as low maintenance as possible on the "care receiver" side.
They are based in the US but that shouldn't be an issue if you're willing to handle setting up the hardware yourself.
Here's their website:
http://www.caregivertech.com
I think that would be better for everybody. Your kids would have a human touch. Grandparents have a good influence on kids(unless they are senile and demented). Especially when you have one of wise grandparents you see in movies.
Depends on how far away grandma and grampa's house is, and if they'll be using the same ISP. It's entirely possible all the traffic will be staying in the ISP's network.
Invest in TANDBERG 1700MXPs.
http://www.tandberg.com/products/telepresence/tandberg_1700_mxp.jsp
I'm never worried by being spied upon by the government. I feel that they already know everything that the could ever really care to know about me. Who do I really fear spying on me?
Mom and the mother-in-law. Heck, my mom lives 15 minutes away across town and talks to my wife at least twice a day and I figure that's too much spying on my family's life. The mother-in-law lives 2 hours away and calls the wife maybe 3-4 times a week. What nut case would want to allow two way video access for their parents to see and comment how they are raising their kids? I mean come on the government is at least somewhat reasonable in where they pick to interfere in our daily lives. The parents can get on their soap boxes about the most crazy things and you can't just disconnect them... you'd never hear the end of it. I've read about a tons of different ways this could nearly trivially be setup.
I'm scared that I've yet to read a single post that says it might not be a very good idea except for the comments about watching the grandparents do things when they thought that they weren't observed. I mean come on how many of you live a distance away from your parents just so you won't have them visiting? I mean doesn't this defeat the entire purpose of living a distance away from your parents/inlaws?
It may also be nice to do a build-your-own system with linutop machines and multiple network camera's setting up a VPN to share them all. Don't forget to look for an option you will have the most fun with, because the users are always going to complain about something (quality, power usage, privacy, how to shut it off, how to restart it... etc. etc.)
Nokia Internet Tablet (previously N800, now N810) is a small handheld device with video call capability. It is a linux-based device with touchscreen, video camera.
The video chat on it is based on Google Talk (you can IM to other Google talk users, and video call with N800/N810 users.)
It connects to the internet via WiFi or connect via bluetooth to mobile phone.
The main screen is customizable, you can have "quick contact" on main screen to see their online status, and make call from there.
Video can be set on/off during a call.
The downside would be its small size, the screen is small and audio might not be loud enough for your kitchen, and video is not very high quality.
When my girlfriend did a semester on the other coast, we used VLC over SSH. There is a little lag, but you can cut it down by playing with the caching, etc. (Not only did we get encryption but used SSH port tunneling to bypass the NAT, firewall problems with her school's network).
If you didn't need to encrypt it or have a need for tunneling, you could drop SSH, you could make a batch file for them to start it up easy enough.
-William Shatner can be neither created nor destroyed.
The PS3 makes for a great video chat system plus they can use the built in browser to send email from gmail/yahoo and watch movies from the comfort of the living room (DVDs and Blu-ray). Really nice.
Total cost (without the TV) is $450 (when you add a bluetooth keyboard and bluetooth handsfree earphones)
http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/02/052255
This question gets asked quite a lot on here.
Yeah right, where am I going to buy a "kill the president"?
Are you talking about the forbidden game? The one that got loose on the Internet?
Once you have this set up it would be a trifle to put another monitor up in front of your local cam and set up a motion sensor.
Once someone on the other end walks in front of thei camera it shows on your screen and triggers your video file to play for them.
Hey all... wanted to let you know I wouldn't be on stage today... we're headed to blah blah blah blah blah
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
They'll see me shagging your daughter on the kitchen table!
Support my political activism on Patreon.
Polycom unit, you set up the port-forwarding and hook it to a TV for 'em. Better quality and ease of use (remote control and a speed dial you set up) than any webcam-based solution.
+++OK ATH
Well, technology aside, I think this is a great idea! Think of it: Grannie and Gramps can get their fill of their grandkids without ever having to say "So, d'ya want me to change that or should we let it ripen a bit more?" I do note, however, that there's likely a "situation-comedy" hiding in the weeds! For those of you in the UK, a "situation-comedy" is what you folks call a "drawing-room-comedy". (And, yes, American TV tends to steal all your best examples of same.)