Clip-on ties and clip-on webcams
Clip-on ties are lame, except for a 6 year old. Clip-on webcams are no better. Eye-to-eye contact is required for good video communications, but the design of about every webcam actually makes eye contact worse. This is because the camera acts to increase the distance between the eyes of the person you are talking to, and the camera eye. This is exactly the wrong thing to do. You need a design that minimizes this distance so when you look at the camera it looks more like you are looking at the actual person. It amazes me how something so obvious is missed. This picture exaggerates the problem to make it clear.
Now how do you fix this problem? Simple. The camera eye should hang down on to the front of your laptop screen. It's OK to cover part of the screen, since you are only looking at a relatively small video chat window. The goal is to get the camera eye as close as possible to the eyes of who you are talking to and this design achieves that. This way you can make eye contact properly and not look as if your eyes are half-closed or you are just looking down all the time. Trust me, eye contact is much better. Anyone see a camera that works this way? let me know.
