Editing Webcam (section)

=== Interface and external software ===
[[File:1975 Alvarez guitar (2010-10-18 03.14.15 by fenderfish).jpg|alt=Very noisy image, filled with color specks|thumb|A picture taken by a webcam in 2010, showing a large amount of noise]]Typical [[Interface (computing)|interfaces]] used by articles marketed as a "webcam" are [[USB]], [[Ethernet]] and [[IEEE 802.11]] (denominated as [[IP camera]]). Further interfaces such as e.g. [[Composite video]], [[S-Video]] or [[FireWire]] were also available. The [[USB video device class]] (UVC) specification allows inter-connectivity of webcams to computers without the need for proprietary device drivers.

Various proprietary as well as free and open-source software is available to handle the UVC stream. One could use [[Guvcview]] or [[GStreamer]] and GStreamer-based software to handle the UVC stream. Another could use multiple USB cameras attached to the host computer the software resides on, and broadcast multiple streams at once over (Wireless) Ethernet, such as MotionEye. MotionEye can either be installed onto a Raspberry Pi as MotionEyeOs, or afterwards on Raspbian as well. MotionEye can also be set up on Debian, Raspbian is a variant of Debian. MotionEye V4.1.1 ( Aug '21 ) can only run on Debian 10 Buster ( oldstable ) and Python 2.7. Newer versions such as 3.X are not supported at this point of time according to Ccrisan, foundator and author of MotionEye.

Various software tools in wide use can be employed to take video and pictures, such as [[PicMaster]] and Microsoft's Camera app (for use with [[Windows]] operating systems), [[Photo Booth]] ([[Mac (computer)|Mac]]), or [[Cheese (software)|Cheese]] (with [[Unix]] systems). For a more complete list see [[Comparison of webcam software]].