Web Cam defined:

A "Web Cam" is a camera hooked up to a web server. A camera takes pictures at intervals (usually every few seconds or so) and then posts them to a web page. This picture can then be seen by anyone on the net. There are literally thousands of these cameras all over the world - all simply accessible by way of HTML. In my introductory Internet course a visit to one of these camera sites was always part of the curriculum. Students always found it amazing that places thousands of miles away could be viewed in real time.

Nutshell process:

Varying light images captured on a CCD (Charged Coupled Device) turn n-doped transistors positive (+). A bit flips and is registered into a temporary register. The image is projected onto a postage stamp sized micro-chip. Tiny phonic sensors convert light to ones and zeros - a "dot" on a picture. Many dots = the whole picture. The intensity of the light (ray) is transposed to a grayscale number {0…255}. At t0 the picture is defined by an array of the intensity values. The camera circuitry clocks the (binary numeric) value into a holding register. At t1 another image is clocked; of course at t2 it continues to occur. The picture is transported by a parallel cable from the camera to the Centronics connector of a PC. Software then converts the {picture} array into a graphic format. *.jpg & *.gif are the most common web graphic formats - thus, the picture can be transported and saved. The many dots have formed a picture. The process involves grabbing the picture from the camera and converting it into a graphic format. The camera is physically connected to the computer running these instructions (software). Lastly, the picture is transported (FTP`ed) to where it can be accessed on the Net - the web server. Another computer runs a web server that presents HTML (derivations accepted, of course) to the Internet. An FTP server on this server machine accepts incoming pictures from the "camera computer". FTP pushes the picture to a directory where the html pages are stored (/docs/). This picture has the same file referenced by the HTML code. So each new picture (t1, t2, t3,…) writes over the older picture. The picture is refreshed. The web server presents the picture (via HTML) to the Internet visitor. Here is a cheap-O process demo.

Hard Sell:

Initially, when I suggested to management that we install a web camera at our POP I came across some resistance.      "What will it give us?" They asked. "And how much will it cost?" Relevant questions.      "Web cameras are great!", I told them, "… and since we already have the camera the capture software is only $25 dollars." The project did not stand well beside other concerns - and I was on my own.

Web Cam Pictures from The ISP Cam:

Conclusion: