Today, many of us have relatives scattered all over the U.S., perhaps even overseas. To keep in touch, there’s nothing like a personal video from home. With computers today, you can send video in the blink of an eye with a simple item called a webcam.

To choose a cam, you’ll need to know what kind of interface your computer can support.

USB is the most popular choice today due to ease of installation. To install it, just plug the cam into a USB port and Windows will detect it and load drivers on the fly. You’ll need to be running at least Windows 95 2.11 OEM which has USB support built in, or Windows 98. If you need to add the ports and have a free PCI slot, a PCI to USB converter should solve your problem. Some of the newest cams on the market will actually digitize you, and put you right into the middle of game software that comes with it! Just aim the camera towards you, boot up the game then watch the screen.

What about older systems? There is still a way to add a webcam in most cases. You might opt for a cam that uses an internal card. Install the card, plug the camera into the port on the card, then load your drivers.

It’s a bit more difficult, and incompatibilities are more frequent.

Another interface is a multi-purpose card like Zoltrix’s TV Genie card. These allow you to watch tv on your computer or input video from any source (SVHS, RCA, etc.) then digitize it into stills or full motion video for transmission on the net. You can use your camcorder for input to it, or any camera with an RCA interface.

Laptops can be tricky but not impossible. If it has no USB ports, a PCMCIA to USB adapter card would be the best choice, but isn’t very cost effective. It would require you to purchase the adapter (which can be quite costly itself) as well as a USB camera to go with it. The plus is, you could then add any USB device to your laptop later. PC card or PCMCIA cams are a terrific choice. They are hot-swappable plug-n-play, but they are hard to find. A parallel port interface is another option. Plug the unit into the printer port, then load the drivers.

All cams will come with software drivers and digitizing software required to get you started. There are many programs available online that allow you to use your cam for full-time web transmission, motion-sensing (for security purposes) and other functions. Some cams will even double as portable digital still cameras. You can always call the store or drop us an email for more information on anything you read about here.

There’s no place like home for the holidays, but if you can’t get the family together this year, you can still bring them closer by sending videos from your festivities. Why not have a holiday video chat in real time?

Save the clips and watch them together later, or post them on a website where relatives and friends from all over can visit. It truly is the next best thing to being there.