Last month marked the 30th
anniversary of the internet, and one of the most recent advances
is the increased usage of Webcams. A Webcam is basically, a Web
page which hosts very recent images or even live video streams
served by a digital Camera attached to a computer. The WebCam
technology has now become quite popular since first WebCams hit
the World Wide Web. Back in the past only a few had the
technology and the resources to keep a camera refreshing an image
24 hours a day and face up bandwidth consumption problems. Now,
for less than £150 and an Internet dial-up connection, you could
set up your own camera on the Internet.
The technology behind these
Webcams is not as technical as you might think. You need a
digital camera, webcam software, an Internet connection and a Web
page which will host the images (or live video streams) served by
the Camera. The cost of all this technology will depend of the
quality of service required : streaming video servers are
expensive, whereas snapshot webcams are cheap.
Streaming refers to live
continuous video sent from your Webcam to your Web hosting
system. Only people with dedicated lines and/or servers and a
high bandwidth can afford true streaming Webcams. Non streaming
cams usually upload a new picture every 10, 15 or 30 seconds
(instead of being continuous flow of information).
The uses of
Webcams
Webcams initially started out as a
fad. Techies in universities had cams pointing at all sorts of
things, PC's, servers, walls ( there's a watching paint dry,
webcam ... see the links section below) , fish tanks ( Netscapes
webcam) and many more unusual items. As the internet grew and
more people surfed the web, these webcams were used for different
and more varied purposes than ever before.
The initial trend of having
webcams for places and things has carried on but the main boom
has been in the area of webcams which document peoples lives.
Webcams like the JenniCam, BeckieCam, BillyZ Cam and many more,
document the lives of the people who set them up. Watch them make
a cup of tea, watch TV, and sometimes these webcams pick up a lot
more than they should ( You'll know what I mean if you've seen
the first American Pie movie !! ).
Here are some
recent webcam related News Stories :
In 2001, a man in America wanted people to
pay him $20 to watch him as he amputated his own legs
live over the internet, using a guillotine.
"On June 16th 1998, more than 50,000
people watched 40 year old Elizabeth from Florida, USA,
give birth to her fourth child Sean, live on the
internet. Sean arrived at 10:40am weighing 7lb 8oz."
"In 1998, two American 'high school'
students Mike and Diane claimed that they would lose
their virginity live on the Net. It was later exposed to
be a fake but not before thousands had tried to log on to
their personal website."
"One of the most popular webcam first
took off in 1991 thanks to a group of thirsty students at
Cambridge University. Tired of trailing up and down
flights of stairs to find that the coffee pot was empty,
they trained a camera on the pot which beamed its images
to the internet so the students could see when their
coffee was ready all without leaving their desks"
"Loch Ness Live has cameras trained
constantly on the mysterious loch in the hope of catching
a glimpse of its elusive monster. In June 1999, mike and
Nora Jones from Galveston in Texas claimed to be the
first to see Nessie on the Net. They contacted the owners
of the site who have published a still photograph
allowing surfers to judge for them selves ( see below
)."
[ Extracts from the Irish
Independent, Saturday, October 23, 1999 ]
Is this the first
sighting of Nessie on the Web ?
The uses of webcams mentioned
above are only a subset of what can be done with this media. Some
parents in the US have even set up webcams in their homes so that
they can watch the child-minders in their home to ensure
everything is OK.
So Thats the basics of webcams and
their uses why not try out some of the links below to see the
different types of webcams etc. that are out there. Hope you
enjoyed the first Topic of the month, if you have anything to
add, i.e related views, information or links, then send them on
and I'll update this page.
Webcam Images
and Links
Here are some links and selected
images from various webcams around the world.
