Sunday, September 16, 2012

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How To turn your Android Phone Camera into a PC Webcam

Posted On - Sunday, September 16, 2012
The Question of the day is, Why buy a separate camera for your PC, if you can very easily turn your Android Phone into one. After reading this article you will be able to use your Android Phone as a webcam for Skype, Google Talk, Facebook, or any other Web application that involves using Webcam. The only prerequisite is that your phone must support video and must be Bluetooth or WiFi enabled.

There are a couple of Apps available for this purpose, like IP Webcam , Droidcam and SmartCam. In this Tutorial, we will be using SmartCam App, because of its simplicity, ease of use, easy setup and fair quality.


SmartCam works via Bluetooth and WiFi both, while its superior competitor IP Webcam works only on WiFi. Though IP Webcam is widely used, but i personally prefer SmartCam for its simplicity and perfection. Following are some very simple steps to guide you to successfully Install and Integrate this App.

Step 1

Download the SmartCam Android App for your Android Phone and SmartCam Desktop Client. This Desktop Client is available for Windows and Linux. The process in this article is for Windows, but it is almost similar for Linux also. Install both the Applications, one on your Android Phone, other on you Desktop before moving on to next step.

Step 2

In this step we will establish connection between your Android phone and Computer. Though we can use either Bluetooth or WiFi, here we will be using WiFi. (For USB connection, We need to do Port Forwarding)
  • First, open SmartCam on your Android Phone, press the Menu button, from the available options, select Settings.
  • In Settings, select TCP/IP (WiFi) as your Connection type, and enter your local IP Address of your Computer.

  • To find IP Address of your Windows Computer, go to Start > Run and type cmd in it, to open comand prompt.
  • In the Command Prompt, enter ipconfig/all and press enter. A lot of information will be displayed, look for your IP address of the Wireless LAN adapter.

Step 3

Open the SmartCam on your Desktop, and make sure that the connection type in the preferences pane is also set to TCP/IP (WiFi).

Step4

Now, turn ON your Android Phones Wi-Fi connectivity, and connect your phone to the same network that your computer is on. With SmartCam already running on your Computer, launch the App on your Android Phone too and select menu > Connect WiFi.

After some processing, the image of your Android phone will appear in the SmartCam application on your desktop. The Video resolution and framerate will be visible below the video stream.

For using SmartCam, for video chatting and conferencing, simply select "SmartCam" as source in Skype and Gmail chat video settings.

Test the App for your SmartPhone and do let us know, how will it worked through your comments.

Thanks for Template.