Update your Zoom meetings and video streams with this high-quality camera app
- Working from home often requires professional-looking backdrops for Zoom meetings.
- Zoom backgrounds are glitchy and DIY green screens aren't very reliable.
- The XSplit VCam replaces your background with an image, video, webpage or YouTube video.
While work from home has adapted to a new norm, so has the need to maintain a professional backdrop or creatively enhance the space around you. Zoom backgrounds are glitchy and DIY green screens aren't very reliable with the simple quality of a computer's camera lens. For those who do regular web chats, film podcast episodes, live stream their work, or have really any need for videography or photography, there's no need to settle for blurry or whitewashed backgrounds.
It's now possible to give your webcam a DSLR or Portrait Mode style effect, with the simplicity of just one gadget attachment. The XSplit VCam is designed to replace your background with an image, video, webpage or YouTube video. It's basically like your own personal photography assistant and editor—and you call all the shots.
Now, you can prepare high-quality pictures for work presentations or videos for your social channels. Plus, you'll look great when just video chatting with extended family. The XSplit VCam is on sale for $19.99, with a lifetime subscription to its 24/7 tech support. Even the least tech-savvy person can learn and benefit from this.
Teachers and other professionals will really get a lot out of its versatility and ability to adapt to all major video chat applications and conferencing solutions. Interviews, lectures, and presentations will change for the better as you can project video and artwork so beautifully.
The system works with Windows 7 64-bit with the latest Intel or NVIDIA graphics drivers, 6th Generation Intel® Core™ series processor or with Intel® HD Graphics enabled, or NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series or above, but unfortunately, is not compatible with MAC OS and iOS systems at this time.
The accessory along with a lifetime subscription is available for $19.99 for a limited time, which is a 59% discount from its original $49 price tag.
Prices subject to change.
When you buy something through a link in this article or from our shop, Big Think earns a small commission. Thank you for supporting our team's work.When considering what precisely makes someone a psychopath, the lines can be blurry.
Psychological research has shown that many people in society have some degree of malevolent personality traits, such as those described by the "dark triad": narcissism (entitled self-importance), Machiavellianism (strategic exploitation and deceit), and psychopathy (callousness and cynicism). But while people who score high in these traits are more likely to end up in prison, most of them are well functioning and don't engage in extreme antisocial behaviors.
Now, a new study published in Cerebral Cortex found that the brains of psychopathic criminals are structurally and functionally similar to many well-functioning, non-criminal individuals with psychopathic traits. The results suggest that psychopathy isn't a binary classification, but rather a "constellation" of personality traits that "vary in the non-incarcerated population with normal range of social functioning."
Assessing your inner psychopath
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare the brains of violent psychopathic criminals to those of healthy volunteers. All participants were assessed for psychopathy through commonly used inventories: the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale.
Both groups watched a 26-minute-long medley of movie scenes that were selected to portray a "large variability of social and emotional content." Some scenes depicted intense violence. As participants watched the medley, fMRI recorded how various regions of their brains responded to the content.
The goal was to see whether the brains of psychopathic criminals looked and reacted similarly to the brains of healthy subjects who scored high in psychopathic traits. The results showed similar reactions: When both groups viewed violent scenes, the fMRI revealed strong reactions in the orbitofrontal cortex and anterior insula, brain regions associated with regulating emotion.
These similarities manifested as a positive association: The more psychopathic traits a healthy subject displayed, the more their brains responded like the criminal group. What's more, the fMRI revealed a similar association between psychopathic traits and brain structure, with those scoring high in psychopathy showing lower gray matter density in the orbitofrontal cortex and anterior insula.
There were some key differences between the groups, however. The researchers noted that the structural abnormalities in the healthy sample were mainly associated with primary psychopathic traits, which are: inclination to lie, lack of remorse, and callousness. Meanwhile, the functional responses of the healthy subjects were associated with secondary psychopathic traits: impulsivity, short temper, and low tolerance for frustration.
Overall, the study further illuminates some of the biological drivers of psychopathy, and it adds nuance to common conceptions of the differences between psychopathy and being "healthy."
Why do some psychopaths become criminals?
The million-dollar question remains unanswered: Why do some psychopaths end up in prison, while others (or, people who score high in psychopathic traits) lead well-functioning lives? The researchers couldn't give a definitive answer, but they did note that psychopathic criminals had lower connectivity within "key nodes of the social and emotional brain networks, including amygdala, insula, thalamus, and frontal pole."
"Thus, even though there are parallels in the regional responsiveness of the brain's affective circuit in the convicted psychopaths and well-functioning subjects with psychopathic traits, it is likely that the disrupted functional connectivity of this network is specific to criminal psychopathy."
Gaming has become a way of life throughout quarantine. Stuck inside, many of us have embraced our inner gamer and turned to our screens to escape the mundanity of lockdown. This has brought on a massive rise in active players for a huge variety of games, as well as a concurrent rise in interest for consoles like the Playstation 5. There’s so much to experience and enjoy on the Playstation, and the best way to optimize your experience on it is to upgrade to Playstation Plus.
Playstation Plus offers an enormous community of fellow gamers on games like Star Wars: Battlefront and Uncharted, as well as a plethora of other classic titles. You can play online with people all around the world on the best games Playstation has to offer. And, if that isn’t enough, you’ll also gain access to a monthly collection of free games, alongside a library which is constantly expanding what is available. Once you take into account the premium discounts that go along with it, this membership essentially pays for itself on the first day you buy it.
This bundle doesn’t just include Playstation Plus, though. It also includes KeepSolid VPN Unlimited, a premium VPN that provides users with privacy and anonymity. VPN Unlimited uses military-grade encryption to ensure your data is locked down from the malicious folks who want to gain access to it. This is valuable both at home and on the go, as KeepSolid will reliably protect your data even on unsecured public WiFi servers. Alongside that, you are given the ability to switch your location to over 80 countries, which allows you to access content online that's typically unavailable in your home country.
Together, this bundle gives you one year of Playstation Plus and lifetime access to KeepSolid VPN Unlimited for the low price of just $49.99 (regularly $258). With Playstation Plus, you’ll be enjoying yourself on a variety of great games, and with KeepSolid, you won’t have to worry about your data while you play.
Prices subject to change.
When you buy something through a link in this article or from our shop, Big Think earns a small commission. Thank you for supporting our team's work.
