Webcams

1
Webcams

• With digital video cameras so prevalent and
  inexpensive, many individuals and organizations
  have setup Webcams for a variety of different
  purposes
• Personal or individual webcams tend to be very
  low-end devices
• 40 - 100, connect using USB
• Fairly poor quality, somewhat fuzzy
• Often then need to use a LOT of compression so
  the image can be displayed over slow links or
  dialup
• Often the images are quite small to make them
  quicker to download

2
Personal Webcam Uses

• With these personal webcams you can
• Look in live on a particular person or a group
  of people anonymously
• Chat with others you may or may not know
• Look at a particular place to see what is
  happening there at the moment
• www.camarades.com, www.webcamworld.com, or
  www.camcites.com have various categories of
  webcams to use
• Sometimes personal webcams are used for adult
  activities or with pay adult sites to watch and
  tell the actress/actor what to do!

3
Organization Based Webcams

• Hardware often much better, may allow you to
  remote control the camera from afar
• UW Red Square Camera
• Syracuse Dome Cam
• Glacier National Park views to see what is
  happening, the weather
• http//www.nps.gov/glac/whatsnew.htm
• Still limited by users with slow links, so still
  lots of compression used and often small image
  sizes as well, if they allow remote control it
  can get confusing with more than one person
  moving the camera at a time
• May display useful video example WS DOT
  Webcams that show current traffic
• http//www.wsdot.wa.gov/PugetSoundTraffic/cameras/
  
• Some organizations use them to monitor and record
  what happens in a particular location, for
  surveillance purposes

4
Webcam Conclusion

• Given their low cost, a nice thing to have
  especially if you have a broadband Internet
  connection
• In practice youll find that the video quality is
  not good, and the novelty will wear-off. Audio
  only or text based chatting is typically good
  enough. However
• As Internet connection speeds continue to
  improve, as compression technologies improve, and
  as webcams themselves improve webcams in
  conjunction with video conferencing software may
  become the normal way that we communicate with
  others in the future