This is sad. Apple’s iSight has been discontinued in North America. There is talk that Apple will replace it with a wireless webcam and many others say that Apple will simply bundle the iSight with all its displays. This last conjecture is just silly. I do not want all my webcams to be tied with my monitors!

Some have pointed out that Unibrain has nice alternative, but they seem to also have discontinued it.

Here is what I am looking for:

• high quality images with excellent white balance and colors, possibly with builtin light (the external iSight had this option);
• high quality sound;
• compatible with Mac;
• under $1000.

My goal is to produce good quality video blogging, produce videos to promote my research, do videoconferencing, and do some some (voice) podcasting.

I could buy a camcorder, but I want something that is integrated with my computer so I do not have to upload videos to the machine and do lots of manipulation. I also want top notch sound quality.

Any advice?

(Spam gets deleted really fast here, so do not even try.)

These guys from Carnegie-Mellon did something that is impressive: extract reliable 3D models from still images. See for yourself:

Since I have not followed advanced in this field, I have no idea how close they are to the state-of-the-art, but I don’t care. If these guys were to launch a start-up, I’d invest. (If I had any money, that is.)

(This is, by the way, a very good illustration of how video-on-the-Web can be used to promote one’s research.)

I plan to go the video podcasting route in 2007. While I still think text is the preferred medium on the Web, I feel that video can add depth to one’s communication.

In preparation for this next step, I’ve shot the following video:

At this point, I want people to criticize my video recording as much as possible. I want to perfect my technique so that video podcasting can become an effective means of communication for me.

Kamel, post-doc in data warehousing in our lab., gave a talk a few days ago (in French).

His slides are also available.

My son Louka is 1.

Here’s what you get when you try to put a hat on a baby:

My wife and my first son Lohan know how to present a birthday cake:

Oh! And my wife is pretty, isn’t she?

I’m such a lucky man!

As promised, here are some Halloween videos of my two sons!

You may want to compare with how Lohan looked two years ago:

They do grow up, don’t they?

(To those who object that the picture is dark and the color not very rich: I do these videos with a very simple camera. I will buy something better before I turn pro. Do not worry.)