How to use a webcam

Hey all! So I really want to try my hand at making a program that implements a webcam. At first, I would just like to make a program that displays the current image from the webcam every, say, one second. The catch: I really would like to know if I can do this without downloading jmf, or fmj, or anything, for that matter. I am looking for someway to do it with the packages already available without downloads. Many thanks to you all for the great, quick, responses you always give!

im looking for something without additional api's

No, probably not.

A low level solution is to write native code that interacts with the webcam directly. I think a higher level solution is to query the operating system (again, natively) for video capturing devices through a driver and get a feed from there. I don't have experience with either method, but I would recommend looking into the latter option, unless you can find an even higher level solution (like a third party library that works for all kinds of operating systems).

You shouldn't try to reinvent the wheel. Embrace "additional APIs".