interfacing standards and hardware connections

[noonansboy]

Hi guys...Just wondered if sombody could help me with this as i am a noob to this...

My brother has moved abroad and wants to keep in touch using the Internet. He has a web cam and is keen to see friends and people at home. So my bro wants to buy a video input device. What are the choices of interfacing standards and hardware connections that are available for web-cams and other relevant video devices. The thing is that I want to know these interfacing standards (correct technical terminology and stuff) but I need to explain what these mean to my bro.

Thanks in advance...

 

[DCIScouts]

Most everything uses either USB or Firewire these days. Which is a god-send considering the mess that used to be present... The biggest concern that he will have is getting the proper power adapters for the equipment.

As for what they stand for or refer to, USB stands for Universal Serial Bus and Firewire is Firewire... USB is the rectangular connection on the computer side and the square with two clipped corners on the device side, or a smaller retangularish interface on the device side... Firewire basically looks like a really skinny tall house on it's side on the computer end, and it can have the same end on the device side or a much smaller interface on the device side as well...