Ad Hoc Video Conferencing

Another interesting application related to Video Conferencing is an old program by Microsoft called Microsoft Portrait. I have run trials on it in an ad-hoc mode with my Vaio laptop with a built in camera, and a desktop with a web cam and a USB wifi dongle. It does work with a limited range. I have tested it at approx. 200 feet before it dropped out due to the wifi signal. It has file transfer capabilities, and a chat feature. I plan to test this in a mobile (car to car) trial when possible. This really has no practical applications other than it can be used as you would with Skype w/video. However Skype can't be used in an ad-hoc mode. You and your fellow employees may play around with it in a meeting when used in an ad-hoc mode. In order to determine your IP address that someone will use to make to call, start the program, click help, then click "about Microsoft Portrait". This will list your IP address.