These days I looking to buy a webcam, then I called some computer stores. I got scared. The prices were extremely high for a medium quality webcam. In Brazil everything related to computers, electronics and cars has absurd prices.

I’m a happy Galaxy Nexus owner, that I won in a google contest @ UDS-Q, and I thought that maybe It would be possible to use it as a webcam. After googling for a while I found an application called DroidCam[1][2], It was exactly I was looking for. For your info I bought the PRO version, since it saved me some hundred reais.

Here go some instructions to install, configure and run.

Installing

First create a dot dir for DroidCam

mkdir ~/.droidcam

Follow the instructions on the DroidCam Linux website http://www.dev47apps.com/droidcam/linuxx/

sudo chown <your username>:<your username> -R ~/.droidcam

Configuring

Add your username to the group video

sudo addgroup <your username> video

Give to your user instantly group permissions

newgrp video

Running

Warning! Run adb as a regular user. If you don’t know how I will make another blog post about setting up your environment in a proper way.

Start your adb server and list your android devices connected to your computer

adb devices

Forward the streamed video from DroidCam to your localhost, otherwise it will not work.

adb forward tcp:4747 tcp:4747

Start DoidCam on your android device.

Start DroidCam client.

droidcam

Now you can configure your google hangout, google talk, skype or whatever you want a webcam for. Enjoy!