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iGlasses -- Help the iSight see better in the dark Pick of the Week
iGlasses icon The macosxhints Rating:
9 of 10
[Score: 9 out of 10]
The combination of iChat and iSight are wonderful; they have helped keep my mother close to her granddaughter, for instance -- even though they're 1,300+ miles apart. However, it's not so great with less than perfect lighting conditions. The iSight, in its stock form, doesn't do so well in low light. As I prefer low light levels in the morning, I've run into this problem quite a bit. And that's where iGlasses comes into the picture, so to speak (couldn't resist!).

iGlasses is an iChat plug-in (it's installed in the /Library -> InputManagers folder) that offers much greater control over your iSight (it also activates video conferencing on machines slower than Apple's required G3/600MHz limit). A small floating palette (which can be closed when not in use) offers a set of useful presets, including enhanced, extra bright, super bright, black & white, sepia, crazy colors (rotates through the color palette, tinting your image in cycles), macro focus (for extreme closeups!), and night vision (for using the iSight in pitch blackness). You can also check boxes to invert the image (useful if you want to mount your camera upside down) and/or mirror the image. How well does it work? Quite well, as you can see here:


That's my cat sleeping on the floor of the den. On the left is the iSight with its standard settings. The middle picture is using iGlasses' "extra bright" setting, and the far right is set to "super bright." As you can see in the images, as you add light, you also add noise. However, there's no disputing the fact that the image on the right would make a usable video chat picture, whereas the one on the left would not. Of course, my cat can't talk, so video chats with him tend to be quite boring.

If that's not enough tweakability for you, iGlasses offers a full set of manual controls over brightness, edge enhancement, focus, gain, hue, saturation, shutter speed, and image temperature. It's a true control addict's dream (or nightmare, if you constantly like to fiddle). The only thing I marked it down from '10' for was that you can't easily see the currently active setting -- it'd be nice to know that I have 'enhanced' active, for instance. But if you use your iSight a lot in low light situations, or just want a useful tweak tool to get the most out of the camera, iGlasses is well worth the $8.00 asking price (and in my opinion, this functionality should be bundled with iChat, or at least included when you purchase an iSight). There's even a seven-day no-limits demo, so you can test it out for yourself first.
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iGlasses -- Help the iSight see better in the dark | 8 comments | Create New Account
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iGlasses -- Help the iSight see better in the dark
Authored by: lebowski on Nov 24, '04 10:50:13AM

I still don't understand why apple would impose the minimum requirement of 600mhz G3 to video chat with iChat. I'm running a slot-loading iMac with only 450mhz and so i never bought an iSight because i figured it would be useless. And then i found out about iGlasses last month, and then i did buy an iSight! And it works perfectly fine!!

I know they probably think it encourages people to upgrade their hardware, but honestly, how many people do you know will buy a new mac just so they can use an iSight??

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You can\'t fight in here, this is a War Room!!



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iGlasses -- Help the iSight see better in the dark
Authored by: corp on Feb 09, '05 12:58:13AM

I just bought a new powerbook, mostly to use iSight. I'm still waiting for the pb, but i tried iglasses with my 500mhz ibook and... it works! Its a bit choppy, but acceptable.



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iGlasses -- Help the iSight see better in the dark
Authored by: makoman on Apr 19, '09 03:44:32PM
I love this app. It's a pretty simple decision. Either it's worth $10 to you or it's not. If you can afford a computer you can afford this app. If you're being cheap about it, then you don't want/need the app that badly, and that's OK too. I don't have blinds on my windows 2 years after moving into my apartment, but I own iGlasses. It's more than a fair price, it's just a matter of priorities. This new version 2 is just fantastic. Zoom and Pan is so missing from Apple iChat. Thanks to developer for getting this feature to work.

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iGlasses with iChat and iMovie!
Authored by: cedric on Nov 24, '04 11:53:35AM

There is something even better about iGlasses, I found it by chance: iGlasses Settings also appear in iMovie! (at least with iGlasses 1.1). Look at the bottom of the "File" menu in iMovie.

So when recording movies directly with the iSight in iMovie, you can adjust your settings beforehand with iGlassses. Great shareware!

P.S. Still don't understand why Apple didn't include it by default. To promote little shareware market?



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iGlasses -- Help the iSight see better in the dark
Authored by: rgray on Nov 24, '04 01:30:09PM
I have only just begun to mess around with this kind of stuff - working on my Skype setup....

I don't have iSight but I do have kittens. If Rob can show of his cat(s?) I can show you mine...

Here is a little site that I made with BetterHTMLExport... We took in a young cat who turned out to be pregnant, yadda, yadda...

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iGlasses -- Help the iSight see better in the dark
Authored by: phil4u2 on Nov 26, '04 05:16:51AM

and it works with Yahoo! Messenger too...



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iGlasses -- Help the iSight see better in the dark
Authored by: davidefrank on Nov 26, '04 09:37:31AM

iGlasses also has a feature I've been waiting for - checkboxes for "Upside Down" and "Mirror Image". Now I can mount the iSight camera to the bottom of a shelf, upside down, so the camera no longer depends on a particular angle of the PowerBook display. I also like the ability to have the camera a bit farther away that the under-shelf mount gives. (My friends say Milwaukee would be even better...)

-David E. Frank



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Hardware mod: infrared light
Authored by: calroth on Nov 27, '04 08:52:46PM
I've never tried this on an iSight, but I've had indications that like many digital cameras and webcams, the iSight is sensitive to infrared light.

You can artificially "light up" a dark scene by using infrared lights. It's invisible to the naked eye, but the iSight may pick it up. For an example of a kit which will do it: http://www1.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=AA0290

Party trick: point a TV remote control at your iSight and press a few buttons on it. What do you see?

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