Persistent Home Videoconferencing Solution? 253
Posted
by
timothy
from the needs-big-red-off-button-too dept.
from the needs-big-red-off-button-too dept.
An anonymous reader writes "I'm moving very soon for work, and will be several hundred miles away from my young family for six to nine months. Obviously I'll travel back as often as possible, and there's always Skype and XBLA video, but the whole 'now it's time to talk to dad' thing seems ... a little weak. I was wondering the Slashdot community could help me come up with a more persistent solution. Ideally what I want is an always-on connection between a pc/monitor/camera/speakers in my old kitchen and my new kitchen, so if we're in the kitchens, we can see each other and interact semi-normally. (We're a kitchen-focused family.) Most solutions I can find time out pretty quick, or require some knowledge on the part of the users, and the tech-savvy people are only going to be in one kitchen, to put it politely!" (Read on for a few more details.)
"I do have a reasonable number of Windows PCs and Macs (and game consoles), but no alt. OS machines, so something for retail OSes would be better — I haven't tested the PS3 camera for long durations, but I know the conferencing quality with a PS3 is pretty good, and that could be an option too. Any camera recommendations would be good. We have sweet access at our house, but it will need to be wireless to the kitchen from the router."
Re:Camera surveillance? (Score:3, Funny)
or make sure to stream some ads every 5 minutes.
bogosort chatroulette (Score:3, Funny)
you have your kids turn on chatroulette, and you do the same. if you don't see each other, and you're kids are still not mentally scarred, you bogosort until you find each other
Sounds pretty inconvenient. (Score:4, Funny)
What if you or your wife want to bang someone on the kitchen table?
Re:Camera surveillance? (Score:2, Funny)
Probably, so I'd start by recommending a wide-angle (maybe even fisheye) lens webcam...
Re:Is your wife tech savvy? (Score:4, Funny)
he's hot gay
Well-placed typo!
Re:Sounds pretty inconvenient. (Score:1, Funny)
Dude, this is slashdot. We do not bang.
Re:Creepy (Score:4, Funny)
"It's only weird when it's one way."
Well, what about half way?
Here's whatcha do.
You get a male, adult mannequin, dress it up like dad (get the facial hair just right!), and prop it up in the breakfast nook. Put the video camera that dad will be getting his feed from behind one of the eyes of the mannequin (I do NOT recommend the "Third Eye" effect. THAT shit is creepy) and put the speakers he will be heard over behind the mouth.
If anybody wants to chat with dad, they go sit with him in the breakfast nook. Rap about school over bagels and lox.
If you add accessories, your wife can haul it into the bedroom after the kids go to sleep. I suggest http://www.adulttoys.com/ [adulttoys.com] and http://www.apogeekits.com/pc_remote_controls.htm [apogeekits.com] combined for a full array of functions.
Dad can also be parked on the front porch while everyone is away, keeping a watchful eye on the home-front. Park a nice lemonade or beer next to him for the full effect.
"Get off of my lawn, you punk kids!" BBZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!