Images on this site were compressed using e-Vue MPEG4 technology in 2001, which was groundbreaking at the time for its DRM component and higher compression than JPG, however e-Vue is no more — we are transitioning these images to JPEG for 2004.
One
of the most rewarding Web-related skills you can learn is how to set-up a "WebCam." There’s a definite visceral pleasure in creating your own window to an area of your life and/or business, and then opening that window to the world via the Internet. WebCams can be used for everything from watching the kids at home, to views of a public quad on a campus, to beach and weather views, to, of course, more prurient interests.
The Set-up
There are two kinds of WebCams. The first is a high-bandwidth
event-based streaming media solution, and it is outside the scope
of this article. The second, is your typical home or small-business-based
camera. The latter is what we will focus on today.
Setting up a WebCam is far less difficult than you might have
thought, and very inexpensive. A time-lapse type WebCam, which
"serves" images every few seconds, or every few hours,
can cost under $200 for everything including the camera, software,
and computer.
Flowchart shows possible scenario of sharing DSL line with multiple computers, one of which is a dedicated WebCam machine.
It breaks down, cost-wise, something like this: software is anywhere from free up to $100 depending on what you want to do (e.g., chat features cost more), and a color video camera suitable for our purposes runs anywhere from $20 to $100. As for the servers, WebCams are an ideal use for old 486-era PCs, and pre-G3 PowerMacs, something you probably already have in abundance. If you don’t already have one, an older PC or Mac will set you back anywhere from $30 to $100, and a cheap 13-inch monitor is $20 to $50. Do the math, it’s cheap.
Your largest cost with any WebCam is going to be the necessary
DSL or cable modem. If you want to serve high-speed images (semi-realtime
video), you will need a dedicated connection. This is because
most DSL connections are faster "downstream" than upstream.
For a fast WebCam, serving high-speed images, you need more upstream
speed.
For our purposes, you should be able to share your existing DSL/cable
connection by obtaining a second user ID and I.P. address from
your provider, or use a hub/router of some kind, which allows
you to "share" your single connection across multiple
machines (see chart above). To "stream" live events,
you would need a more complex software application, which acts
as a "server" to capture, compress, and then "serve"
the video streams. Again, this more complex scenario is not what
we are covering in this article.
One thing you must have, is a Web presence someplace. This means,
you must have a location on the Internet where you can place images,
such as where you have a current homepage like yourdomain.com,
or like AOL, GeoCities, or free space provided by your ISP (the
folks who provide your DSL or cable connection). You will need
to know how to log-in to that place, such as via FTP, in order
to upload images.
If you have never
uploaded an image via FTP to your Web site, you won’t be
able to proceed with additional steps. Contact your ISP and figure
out how to get an image up to your Web space, usually to the same
place you would upload HTML pages—and, for best results,
don’t mention a WebCam to the ISP. They may be less than
delighted with the idea.
