Category Archives: webcam

Fired Remote Worker Awarded €75,000 in Court

October 9, 2022webcamcourt cases, webcamJenThorpe

A remote employee of a U.S. business who was fired for refusing to leave his webcam on while he was working was awarded roughly 75,000 euros by a Dutch court for wrongful termination. The resident of Diessen, Noord-Brabant, was hired by the Rijswijk branch of Chetu Inc., a software development company headquartered in Miramar, Florida, NL Times reported.

The employee began working for Chetu in January 2019, and said he was earning over 70,000 euros per year in salary, commission, variable bonus, and holiday allowance. He worked for the American firm for over a year and a half, but on 23 August, he was ordered to take part in a virtual training period called a “Corrective Action Program.” He was told that during the period he would have to remain logged in for the entire workday with screen-sharing turned on and his webcam activated.

The telemarketing worker replied back two days later, “I don’t feel comfortable being monitored for 9 hours a day by a camera. This is an invasion of my privacy and makes me feel really uncomfortable. That’s the reason why my camera isn’t on. You can already monitor all activities on my laptop and I am sharing my screen.” He was summarily fired on 26 August, for “refusal to work” and “insubordination”.

The fired worker brought the case to the Zealand-West Brabant court in Tilburg. The court agreed the termination was not legally valid. The court ordered Chetu Inc. to pay the man over 2,700 euros in unpaid salary, 8,375 euros for wrongful termination, 9,500 euros in worker transition assistance, and 50,000 euros in additional compensation. On top of that, the company has to pay the worker for 23 vacation days that were not taken, the 8 percent statutory holiday allowance, and possibly an additional penalty for failure to provide a payslip for August. Chetu also has to cover about 585 euros for court filing costs and the plaintiff’s legal fees.

TechCrunch reported that firing the worker might have worked in an at-will state such as Chetu’s home state Florida, but it turns out that labor laws work a little differently in other parts of the world. According to TechCrunch, Chetu was “apparently a no-show for the court case”.

Personally, I agree with the court’s decision. It seems entirely irrational to expect a worker to be on camera for 9 hours a day. Many remote workers are doing their jobs from their own homes, and it would be incredibly invasive to have to “stream” yourself for 9 hours straight to appease your bosses.

In addition, I’d like to see federal legislation passed that would make it illegal for companies to abuse their remote workers by forcing them to be on camera for an entire workday. It makes sense to be on camera with other coworkers for a short meeting. But, being on camera for an entire workday makes absolutely no sense.

Papalook PA552 Webcam With Light Ring and Mic

September 27, 2020webcamPapalook, webcamAndrew

I know from working in Microsoft Teams during the pandemic that there are three things that really help your presence in an online meeting – a good microphone, a good camera and good lighting. This is not a new discovery but the increase in video calls has made more obvious than usual.

Many people rely on the equipment built-into their laptop and it’s very much a mixed bag. Some laptops having good built-in cameras and microphones and others are really bad. But where it so often goes wrong is with the lighting: I’m sure we’ve all seen calls with ghostly people sitting in gloom or haloed angels blinded by the light behind.

Simply adjusting seating position can often yield immediate results – don’t sit with a window behind you – but if a bit of extra help is needed all round, then take a look at the Papalook PA552. It’s a fixed focus HD (1080p) webcam with a built-in light ring and dual noise-cancelling microphones. This will improve matters no end for those long on-line meetings.

The Papalook PA552’s light ring has adjustable brightness levels to give good facial lighting even in the gloomiest of offices. The built-in DSP chip works with the ambient light to cleverly ensure the best picture exposure for the 30 fps 1080p webcam. It’s a 90 cm fixed focus, which is ideal for “at desk” video calls and the 75° viewing angle means you can get two people in the picture, though that would clearly breach current social distancing guidance. The glass lens ensures a high-quality image without blur and distortion.

For the audio, the dual omni-directional automatic noise-cancelling mics are designed to filter out external and background noise, focussing on the speaker and making voices sound natural and clear.

As you’d expect, it’s a USB connection from the camera to the computer. The Papalook PA552 webcam is available now from Amazon.co.uk for GB£89.99 or Amazon.com for US$89.99.

If the PA552 and its ring light doesn’t appeal, take a look at the Papalook PA452 and AF925. The PA452 has a modern metallic look and the camera itself has a larger aperture meaning that it will work better in low light conditions. There’s a PA452 Pro version with adjustable focus if additional flexibility is needed. The AF925 is an all-black affair but has the benefit of auto-focus which is useful in circumstances where the subject moves around.

The PA452, PA452 Pro and AF925 are all available from Amazon with prices starting at GB£69.99 and US$79.99

Chatlight at CES 2016

January 2, 2016ces, video, webcamCES 2016, Chatlight, lighting, video calling, Video ChatStacey Hall

Chatlight is a rechargeable light for your smartphone, tablet, or laptop that illuminates all your video calls and selfies. Chatlight recognizes that it’s not the quality of your webcam that makes a good image, it’s the quality of your lighting that rea CHATLIGHT-inpost1 lly makes a difference.

Chatlight is specifically designed for video chatting, no matter when or where you are. The small, unobtrusive light mounts onto your device and provides lighting with fully-adjustable brightness and direction for optimal image quality.

One of the things that makes Chatlight so Chatlight-02 special is its long-lasting bulbs and rechargeable battery, something rarely found in other lighting attachments. Chatlight’s bulbs last for over 50,000 hours, and the battery lasts up to 90 minutes on a single charge.

Chatlight is compatible with almost any smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop monitor less than 3/4″ thick. It’s sure to improve the image quality of almost any webcam since better lighting means the camera lens can focus more easily and capture a much clearer image.

Chatlight retails for $29.99 and is currently available for purchase on the Chatlight website.

IC Real Tech Allie Camera at CES

January 21, 2015Android, camera, ces, Interview, iOS, Security, smartphone, Special Media, tablet, video, webcam, wirelessAndroid, camera, ces, Interview, IOS, IP cam, Security, smartphone, streaming, surveillance, Tablet, video, webcamAndrew

Web and IP cams are ten a penny these days, but the IC Real Tech Allie takes expectations to a whole new level with a near 720 degree field of view and the ability to stop time. Todd gets a demo from Matt on how the Allie Pro can see everything.

The Allie Pro is an IP cam with two lenses, one on the front and one on the back, that have overlapping fields of view. As result, when viewed in real-time on a tablet or smartphone, the image can be panned round in nearly 720 degrees; left-to-right, up-and-down with no blindspots. The complementary apps on both iOS and Android can either use touch or the motion sensors to move round the image. Live video is fed through but if something catches the eye, the video can be paused and the frozen image explored in more detail.

There are three models in the range, Allie Play, Home and Pro, with increasing levels of video resolution and prices to match at $399, $599 and approx $1100 for the Pro. All available in late Q1.

These cameras are awesome and I can see tremendous potential for pseudo-telepresence, perhaps combined with a simple VR setup like Google Cardboard. Turn your head, turn the view. And think of a head-mounted action cam version! Watch the video – you’ll be impressed.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central for the TechPodcast Network.

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Archos Smart Home Review

September 10, 2014Android, Bluetooth, Home Automation, Information, review, Security, tablet, webcam, wirelessAndroid, Archos, bluetooth, home automation, Home Security, review, Security, smart, Tablet, weatherAndrew

These days it’s either i-this or smart-that with new gadgets measuring and changing our personal environment. From Fitbit to Philips Hue, the internet of things is steadily growing and into this increasingly connected world, French firm Archos have stepped in. Their Smart Home tablet wirelessly connects sensors to a central hub that monitors and initiates actions based on conditions. Archos kindly lent me a Smart Home to raise the IQ of my house. Let’s take a look.

In the box there’s the Smart Home tablet, plus six connected objects; two mini-cams, two movement tags and two weather tags. The tablet itself looks much like a digital photo frame but it’s actually a small 7″ device running Android 4.2.

In the looks department, the Smart Home tablet fits the bill with styling that wouldn’t look out of place in a living room. It is all plastic, including the screen which seems to be acrylic rather than glass, but perhaps will better withstand being knocked. Some thought has been given to the design as the screen’s viewing angle appears to be have been adjusted slightly so that screen looks good when someone looks down at it, rather than straight on. There’s only about 2.5 GB of free memory on-board but there is a microSD card slot to boost the Smart Home’s capacity. Performance-wise, it’s no speed demon with a 1.2 GHz ARM processor, but as most of the time the Smart Home just sits there receiving data, it’s a not a big deal. A camera and a thermometer are built into the tablet too and these can be used to take pictures and measure the temperatureas well as the connected objects.

The connected objects are shown below with the mini-cam, weather tag and movement tag from left to right. All have sticky pads which allow adhesion to flat surfaces round the house. The mini-cam ball is held in the foot by magnets and it means the ball can oriented in almost any direction. The weather tag measures temperature and humidity, and the movement tag can measure both motion and door opening / closing.

Getting setup is easy and straightforward. Running the Archos Smart Home software initially asks for the different rooms where devices are located.

Once the rooms are setup, the connected objects can be added into the relevant room. The objects use Bluetooth rather than Zigbee and pairing is simply a case of holding down a button on the connected object for 5 seconds. It worked flawlessly. The pairing screen shows all the objects available, not only the ones in the box.

Once all setup, the Smart Home tablet presents a view with the room and all the objects in the room.

In the Hall, I had two mini-cams, a weather tag and a movement tag. Tapping on any device in the app then gives more data or information – here’s the weather tag showing data over the past week for both temperature and humidity.

Great but how do we get from monitoring the weather to doing something smart? Archos have the answer by building simple “if this, do that” programs. For example, if temperature falls below two degrees Celsius, email to me “It might be slippy.” Or more usefully, if the door opens, take a picture and send an email – like this.

Sure enough, when the front door is opened, I get an email (my personal email is address is obscured by the black box).

The mini-cam also takes a picture (or a short video) but they won’t show a live feed, presumably because Bluetooth can’t transfer the data very quickly. You’ll notice one of the slight problems….the Smart Home doesn’t really take pictures fast enough as in many of the photos the person who opened the door has already moved out of shot. These are all real life photos, nothing was staged. A mini-cam positioned further down the hall generally did better at getting people entering the property.

Out of the box, there’s a fairly limited range of actions such as send email, turn on plug and so on, but Smart Home can use the Tasker app to do more. Tasker supports a wide range of actions, including starting other apps, which makes it quite a powerful solution. However, even this simple email-me-on-the-front-door-opening is useful when wanting to know if someone has arrived home safely (or a thief has broken into your house!)

Other nifty features are that the Smart Home can be accessed from other tablets or smartphones. After a straightforward authorisation process, the system can be viewed from other devices both inside and outside the house. Here’s what it looks like on my smartphone.

Overall, the Smart Home worked well, mostly sitting on the table doing its job. I did find that I mostly used my ordinary tablet (a Nexus 7) to work with the Smart Home rather than picking up the unit itself. I set the Smart Home tablet up as a digital photo frame using the standard Android Daydream screensaver to fit into the room.

There were a couple of problems, the first being the range and penetration of Bluetooth. I live in a modest house with brick walls which meant that the weather tag at the rear of the property couldn’t be picked up if the Smart Home tablet was in the front room. Secondly, battery life – the mini-cams seemed get through a set of batteries in about a fortnight and each one took three CR2450 button cells. The movement and weather tags weren’t quite so bad – perhaps a month and only one battery. As an aside there’s no way of muting the low battery warnings that appear in orange on the screen. A connected object could be disconnected but that deleted the historical date at the same time.

Bizarrely, the other problem was how I felt about spying on my family, which is not anything to do with the Archos Smart Home, so I’ll save that for another post. I can see the Smart Home working for families with children that come home when the parents are still at work and the email notifications would give any parent a measure of comfort that their son or daughter is home safe.

The Smart Home costs GB£199 from Archos’ online store. Other additional connected objects are “coming soon”, including an HD weatherproof camera and a siren tag. In summary, the Smart Home is a well integrated system that has room for expansion with more types of connected objects but watch out for the limitations of Bluetooth range and battery life.

Thanks to Archos for the loan of the Smart Home.

Why Chin Implants are On the Rise

April 18, 2012health, skype, Technology, video, webcamTechnology, videoJenThorpe

The fastest growing trend in plastic surgery right now is chin implants. That’s right, there is an increasing number of people who decide to undergo plastic surgery in order to have their chins done.

Data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons shows that the number of chin implants grew 71% in the past year. It seems that the people who want to have their chins augmented are evenly split between men and women, and that the largest increase is in patients who are age 40 or older.

The question is: Why? I don’t know about you, but I cannot think of a single instance where I looked at a person and thought to myself: “He would be so much more attractive if he had his chin augmented”. Most people, when listing the physical characteristics that they hope to find in a potential date neglect to mention anything about the person’s chin. In our culture, there are many body parts that are considered to be especially attractive or sexy, but the chin is not among them.

So, what is it, exactly, that is causing a growing interest in having plastic surgery to alter the appearance of one’s chin? It seems the answer has to do with technology. The president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Malcolm. Z. Roth, answered this question.

He suggests that the biggest reason why there is this sudden rush to get a chin job is because of video. People are using various forms of video-chat technology. Malcolm Z. Roth says: “They may notice that their jaw line is not as sharp as they want it to be”.

What is happening is that people, especially those who are 40 or older, have started using Skype, or FaceTime, or a variety of other communication tools that enable them to see other people while talking to them over the internet. It also allows a person to see how he or she looks on camera. Turn your head, your image on the video screen turns, and suddenly, you get a whole new perception of what your chin looks like to other people.

This story makes me giggle. Maybe it is because I think that elective plastic surgery is largely unnecessary under most circumstances. It also makes me wonder if there will be a trend of people who wear scarves when they are on Skype or FaceTime, in order to conceal their less than perfect chins.

Image: Patient’s chin with marks before operation by BigStock

Logitech C310 Webcam Review

March 15, 2012Gadgets, Gear, Information, webcamC310, logitech, webcamKL Tech Muse

I recently purchased a new Mac Mini and decided to upgrade my webcam at the same time. I had previously had been using an old Xbox Live Vision camera, which was one of the few cameras that didn’t cost and arm and a leg and worked with a Mac. However it was standard definition and I needed to do an upgrade. I wanted something that would produce good quality video, but was not too expensive. I discovered after doing a little research that my options were to go with Logitech or Logitech, and no that’s not a typo, there are not a lot of choices when it comes to web cameras for a Mac.

After looking through the options that Logitech had to offer I ended up getting the Logitech C310 camera. The Logitech C310 camera produces 710p video and it also has audio built-in. You can also use it to take still pictures. I have not tested this camera on a Windows machine, I do know from other reviews that there are options available on a PC that are not available on the Mac. On a Windows PC you can do one-click upload to Facebook that option is not available on a Mac. However whether you are on a Mac or a PC the Logitech C310 is compatible with most IM clients including Skype. If I was doing a video podcast I might have made a different choice, but for what I am using it for the C310 by Logitech works fine. I did a short video testing the camera which I have included above. If you do have a Mac and are looking for a good but inexpensive webcam I recommend you take a look at the Logitech C310.