I've recently started development on the Mac and have written a tool that I thought may be of use to others. EyePatch is a MenuBar tool that allows you to see and change the state of the drivers for the built-in iSight drivers on Leopard.
This tool will show an open or closed eye based on the state of the drivers, allowing you to know whether the camera is fully disabled before starting some applications. I wrote this specifically to handle some issues I had where web conference software would not ask my permission before sending video (Yes, I know about the little green light, but it often would send video immediately when starting the app.) This tool allows me to verify the state of the drivers without having to put a piece of paper / tape over the camera before use.
The tool works by checking on the POSIX level permissions of the iSight driver files and allowing an administrative user to change those permissions. To limit possible security issues, the tool will ask for an admin password each time you change the state of the drivers as it will immediately drop the admin privileges after use.
The tool is available in a binary (debug) form on my website (http://techplay.net/blog/post/EyePatch-v1.aspx) and full source is available under an MIT License on my GitHub account (http://github.com/mike/eyepatch.) I've verified the app to work on both my SR 2.4 MBP and my wife's Aluminum iMac - that said I can't guarantee it will work on your machine. It may break something, cause havoc, or communicate with aliens from Hovering Squid World 97a - in other words, treat as beta software and it is given with no warranty / responsibility of use.
I do want to give credit to TechSlaves.org's iSight Disabler applescript that was the inspiration for this tool. The iSight Disabler and EyePatch do the same thing, just in different ways.
Feedback is welcomed - I'd like to know how to make this tool better for any that wish to use it.
This tool will show an open or closed eye based on the state of the drivers, allowing you to know whether the camera is fully disabled before starting some applications. I wrote this specifically to handle some issues I had where web conference software would not ask my permission before sending video (Yes, I know about the little green light, but it often would send video immediately when starting the app.) This tool allows me to verify the state of the drivers without having to put a piece of paper / tape over the camera before use.
The tool works by checking on the POSIX level permissions of the iSight driver files and allowing an administrative user to change those permissions. To limit possible security issues, the tool will ask for an admin password each time you change the state of the drivers as it will immediately drop the admin privileges after use.
The tool is available in a binary (debug) form on my website (http://techplay.net/blog/post/EyePatch-v1.aspx) and full source is available under an MIT License on my GitHub account (http://github.com/mike/eyepatch.) I've verified the app to work on both my SR 2.4 MBP and my wife's Aluminum iMac - that said I can't guarantee it will work on your machine. It may break something, cause havoc, or communicate with aliens from Hovering Squid World 97a - in other words, treat as beta software and it is given with no warranty / responsibility of use.
I do want to give credit to TechSlaves.org's iSight Disabler applescript that was the inspiration for this tool. The iSight Disabler and EyePatch do the same thing, just in different ways.
Feedback is welcomed - I'd like to know how to make this tool better for any that wish to use it.