iSight is a webcam developed by Apple Inc. . The iSight external camera retails at a price of $ 149 with a mounting kit (for installation on Apple Display monitors at the time, laptops, all-in-one computers, etc.) and connected to a computer via the FireWire port. Subsequently, the iSight camera was built into the iMac , MacBook , MacBook Pro , MacBook Air , LED Cinema Display , iPad mini and iPhone 5 smartphones.
| iSight | |
|---|---|
 ISight logo | |
| Manufacturer | Apple Inc. |
| Camera type | Webcam |
| Matrix type | CCD |
| Matrix size | 1/4 inch, resolution 640x480 |
| Information carrier | Connecting to a computer via FireWire |
| Lens system | two aspherical lenses |
| Focus type | autofocus |
| Exposure | continuous, 30 frames per second |
| Aperture number | 2.8 |
Apple introduced iSight in 2003 at the WWDC as a camera designed for iChat video calls. iMovie , starting from version 4, could capture video from the device. In April 2005, Apple released an update for iSight to improve sound. Starting December 16, 2006, Apple stopped selling external iSight in the Apple Online Store and in retail stores. Since 2010, the iSight camera in the product line Apple has replaced the built-in camera FaceTime [1] .
Content
Design
The ¼-inch color CCD , which the external iSight had, had a VGA resolution of 640x480 pixels and an F / 2.8 lens with two aspherical lenses . Possessed autoexposure, autofocus from 50 mm to infinity, and shooting video at 30 frames per second in 24-bit color with different exposures . However, iSight had an image delay of 120 ms. The device has a built-in microphone with noise reduction element. In fact, the camera itself occupied only a quarter of its size. The rest of the space was occupied by her two microphones and a cable connector.
The camera weighed 63.8 grams. She used one FireWire 400 cable for video, audio, and power. The camera consisted of four mounting points, a plastic cylinder (the camera itself) and a FireWire adapter . The user could choose the most suitable stand for his monitor or other surface. iSight was fully compatible with its native Mac OS X , partly with Microsoft Windows and Linux .
iSight has one small green LED that lights up when the camera is in use.
Built-in iSight
Although the built-in and external iSight have great differences, this name was used for cameras embedded in MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air laptops, iMac monoblocks (starting with models of the end of 2005), LED Cinema Display and iPhone 5 . Built-in iSight uses the internal USB 2.0 interface, as opposed to the external one that used FireWire 400 (IEEE 1394a). In addition, the built-in iSight has a plastic lens, a fixed focus, uses a CMOS sensor , rather than a CCD sensor , which was used in the external iSight. With LED backlighting in MacBook Pro, Apple switched to a sensor with a resolution of 1280x1024 pixels, but when accessing the camera via the API, the resolution of the image from the camera can be only 640x480 pixels. However, a video stream with a resolution of 1280x1024 can be obtained through Quartz Composer . Built-in iSight is also used in the Photo Booth program.
iSight and Windows
External iSight
Windows XP , Windows 7 and Windows Vista defined the external iSight as “1394 Desktop Video Camera”, but there are no special camera drivers for Windows. Due to the same lack of drivers, Windows cannot receive sound from the microphone built into the external iSight.
Built-in iSight
In Boot Camp version 1.1, Apple added a camera driver for Windows XP, and in version 1.2 support was also provided for Windows Vista.
See also
- Facetime
Notes
- ↑ Apple Introduces New MacBook Pro Laptops Archived March 4, 2016.
Links
- ISight for Linux audio driver project page
- ISight driver project for Linux on SourceForge
- iSight Programming Guide for FireWire iSight cameras on Apple.com