I just purchased a new webcam for the office for video conference calls via Skype. The camera, the Logitech Oprbit MP, has a feature where it can track faces and track people. The face tracking for an individual is rather uncanny and works very well. There is a fun option where you can use an avatar, such as, a shark or cartoon. Instead of me trying to describe it, go view the Logitech video effects demo page.
It has some difficulty tracking a group of people, however, the video and audio qaulity (it has a built-in echo cancelling mic) is excellent. Unfortunately, it does not work with Macs yet. However, there is an open source project called Macam that develops drivers for USB web cams for Macs and hopefully eventually a driver will be offered. Logitech does not help, because they do not disclose the necessary specifications required to develop the drivers and neither do they offer a Mac driver for the camera.
There is an application called Logisphere that allows you to control the pan, tilt and zoom aspects of the camera remotely via a web page. Check out some cameras online for yourself which you can control. It works with older models of the camera but not with the MP version. The author would like to support the MP model, but Logitech will not provide the information he needs, yet they themselves do not offer similar software which doe snot appear to make very good business sense to me.
Eventually I would like to use the camera for the Alumnae Association webcam page and allow end users to pan, tilt and zoom. It's just a matter of finding compatible software. I am currently using a Mac with QuickTime Broadcaster and an iSight camera which I described in a previous post.