zlacker

A lot of people ask why the light isn't automatically turned on when it's in use. I think the problem is it's easier to turn it on through software than hardware. Plus, if you can treat the webcam as just a microphone, then anytime a device accesses the microphone (games for example), the light would turn on. Not a problem, per se, but the light would be turning on and off a lot if you use a push to talk game. Something that might cause people to make it so they can just turn the light off. Of course, this is all just speculation.

>>colejo+(OP)
Just make it have a 3 second fade time where instead of the LED being at 100% intensity, have it as 75% intensity so it's not distracting by coming on and off.

>>HappyT+O5
So, make it "breath" like the MacBook charger light? While that's a great idea, good luck getting a company to implement that in hardware. I'm sure some privacy/FOSS focused company will come up with something, but for the majority of companies, it's not cost effective compared to just writing a driver that just tells the webcam to turn the light on and of.