I've been working too with that kind of software since the 1980's.
Chroma-Key technique. You don't need to stick to a blue background, you can use any color as background. It is a matter of replacing a color with something else. I am trying to find that Messenger program that does this. I saw it in an article on the net a while ago.
EDIT: I have found the software for it. "Only" 15 bucks.
quote:
http://www.webmasterfree.com/software/WebAuthoringTools/WebCamPublishing/wheresjames_webcam_publisher.html
quote:
WheresJames Webcam Publisher is an application designed to make it easy for you to publish images to the web. One of the strongest points about this software is the video overlay features. We believe them to be superior to any other available publishing application. You can easily overlay text, images, watermarks, time, and date stamps with a simple drag and drop interface. Application fully supports translucency, and transparency. Chroma-key features allow you to select a range of color so you can use transparency with JPEGs. You can also use the Chroma-key features to integrate live video onto background imagery. Just like in the movies! The motion detection feature allows you to keep an eye on your pets while your away, traffic on the street, monsters in your closet, whatever moves around your place. Dont take my word for it. Try it now.