- Image via Wikipedia
The internet has always been used as a mode of communication. Old timers will remember a period when two computers used to communicate textually using something called an IRC chat. Here, there were no programs like Yahoo Chat in those days, but smart programmers deviced little applets to send and receive messages using various shell protocols.
We have come a long way from those days. Although we have not nearly arrived at teleportation yet – your online pizza delivery cannot be eaten out of your high end lcd display. No, but we have still made enormous progress. You can see and talk to friends and business associates across continents, you can see them moving around in their office or their homes, and feel like you are nearer to them than reality would have you believe.
Welcome to the world of audio and video chat over the internet.
The necessary devices required to accomplish this modern day marvel are a set of microphones and headphones, and a web camera; assuming you have the internet connection going, of course. The software usually needed for this is a java based chat program. Currently the two most important chat programs are gtalk and skype; this is after the relative demise of Yahoo chat as the program of choice for chatting. In some countries like the US, AOL is also very important.
All you need to do is login to your skype or gtalk or whatever account, and start a conversation with a friend on your list. Once the textual chatting thing is on its way, you can easily start the webcam and the voice. This lets you talk to people while they can see you; you can see them too if they have their own cams online. The voice and image thing may not work well for slower connections, but with high speed broadband, it is a blitz.