Smile! You're on Xbox Live Vision!

There's a new accessory in town. Its name is Xbox Live Vision and it watches.

It's a camera, you see. Small and compact, Xbox Live Vision gives you a window on your friends and foes through in-game video and video chat through Xbox Live®. Give your friends a peek at your gorgeous mug with picture messages and personal gamer pictures.

Xbox Live Vision will work with Xbox 360™ or your PC, but I'll just talk about the many console features here.

Introducing Xbox Live Vision.

Video Chat
Ever wonder what some of your faithful gaming buddies look like? Want to gesticulate wildly at someone? Viva video chat!

Video chat is an Xbox Dashboard-based chat area that lets you chat it up one-on-one, in full living color. You get to video chat by launching it from the private chat area, but it's a little different from private chat. There's only one video chat channel, and video chat opens a separate area instead of just laying voice over your current session like private chat. You can still switch between your video channel and one of your private chat channels, but those private chats are still voice-only.

Do standard camera tricks in video chat like zooming in and adjusting settings. You can even pause chat, which will blank out your video for a while. You know, in case you have to scratch something.

One of my favorite features of video chat is the effects. It's one of those hidden tricks, but it can be quite entertaining. Hit the left or right bumper and you'll see what I mean. Go black-and-white, invert colors, or try a line drawing of yourself. Or, if your room is really messy, switch to blurry. They'll never know.

Another hidden feature is vibrate. Try the triggers to wake your chat partner up.

Picture Messages
First there were text messages. Good enough, but oh so dry. Next, there were voice messages, which allowed some expression beyond text. Now there are picture messages, in which you can capture your face and various appendages and send them to friends and strangers alike.

Start a picture message the same way you start a text or voice message, by selecting a gamertag and creating a new message. After you select Add Picture, snap a quick pic of your lovely visage. The fun doesn't stop there. You can add effects, from a subtle tint all the way to heavily distorted—whatever suits your fancy.

Personal Gamer Picture
With the spring update, your gamer picture was split into two types of gamer picture—your regular gamer picture, and your personal picture. Your gamer picture remains the same, it's your personal picture that's special.

Your personal picture is an alternative gamer picture that shows up on your gamer card only to your friends. Until Xbox Live Vision was released, you could only select a personal picture from the same list where you selected your regular gamer picture. With the camera, though, you can take a picture of yourself, your surroundings, or a nearby object, and use that as your personal picture.

As with picture messages, you have an option to apply an effect, so that you can come up with a really interesting and unique personal picture.

Xbox Dashboard and Visualizations
Video and pictures should be enough, but no, our team had to add more. If you have an Xbox Live Vision camera, you may have noticed a change to the background of your Xbox Dashboard when you plugged it in. This is a new theme customization option called "camera effect." This effect uses input from the camera to overlay a transparent effect over your background. There are three effects to choose from: Edgy, Watery, and Dotty.

The other nifty feature is the visualization in the music player. If you have a camera connected, a freaky ghost effect is overlaid on top of the visualization. Go on, jump around. Cool, huh?

Video in Games
Games can also support Xbox Live Vision. They can do anything from display video in place of your gamer picture, to mapping your face, to gesture-based play, to … who knows! The sky's the limit!

Out of the box, you've got UNO and the new game Totemball, but expect to see new games all the time that support Xbox Live Vision.

Practice your poker face in World Series of Poker.

Camera Settings
To round out the camera features, you've got a set of general camera settings found in Xbox Live Vision on the System blade. Here you have two options:

• Room: This refers to the background behind you, usually a wall. Usually Auto is fine, but there are Light Wall and Dark Wall options in case your camera has trouble adjusting to the background.
• Lighting: Again, Auto is usually fine, but you can also set it to Daylight, Incandescent, and Fluorescent to compensate for different color temperatures.

Take Control
There is something that's been on my mind, something I call the "berries problem." That is, when you put a camera in front of some people, those people may have a tendency to put on display certain things that you may not enjoy seeing. Never fear, the solution is in your hands.

• Video chat: Video chat is only available to Xbox Live Gold members and between friends. If your friend can't control himself, your options are to end chat, refuse future chat requests, and even remove them from your friends list.
• Picture messages: A warning is displayed when you open a picture message from someone not on your friends list, to help you avoid ambushes from people you don't know.
• Personal pictures: Personal pictures are visible only to friends. Everyone else sees your regular gamer picture. If you don't like your friend's personal picture, boot 'em.
• In-game: Use the in-game video options to control how video displays in games.

The above features can be used in conjunction with Family Settings and privacy settings to further ward off unwanted images.

Family Settings
Control your child's access to chat and messages by setting the communications option in Xbox Live Family Settings.

Parents, if you want to make sure your child does not receive picture messages from strangers, be sure to restrict communications to friends only, and, if desired, further restrict your child's friend's list by requiring approval of your child's friends.

Privacy settings
Adult accounts have a similar communications setting, located in privacy settings.

If, after understanding and using the above options, you still receive offensive or inappropriate messages, use the Block Communications and File Complaint options on the person's gamer profile. That'll show them who's boss.

More Info
For more info about Xbox Live Vision, try these links:

• Support for Xbox Live Vision.
• Messaging with Xbox 360.

Article by Elle