Get Online And "See" The World!

By Don Rittner

You would call me crazy if I told you it was possible to watch the sun rise in Tokyo, or watch a couple of cows graze in New Jersey, or look at a glacier in Antarctica live and in real time all without leaving your home! But the truth is you can. In fact, with your computer and Net connection, you can peer into thousands of virtual "windows" of the world viewing everything from a married couple living their "normal" life to peering under a person’s bed looking for ghosts. The introduction of Net video has opened quite a Pandora’s box.

Real time video on the Net has been around for a few years. However, it was never popular until the speed of modems picked up especially last year. Trying to watch live video on a modem chugging along at 1400 bits per second (bps) was as unbearable as watching the Clinton Impeachment trial. Today’s fast 56bps modems, while still not completely real time, are close enough to make it a popular and growing hobby.

Video from a camera attached to your computer is digitized and sent over your modem much like any other data. Since video frames pack a lot of data, it's compressed before it’s sent, then uncompressed when it reaches the destination computer. This goes on very quickly so you see the effect of "real time" video. While Net video is not quite as good as watching your TV yet, it’s only a matter of months before that changes. In the meantime, you can still "see" a slice of the world, or at least perhaps a certain strange part of it.

There are many software programs that let your camera and computer snap pictures at specified intervals and display them on your Web page. This has led to the rise of ‘Webcams’ around the world and this is where the fun begins. There are hundreds of excellent educational Webcams but there are just as many far out and strange ones. There is a whole industry of "jenny" cams where attractive women charge a monthly fee to watch them parade around the apartment with no censorship. There are Webcams that are pointed at geographical features, manmade buildings, even at someone’s aquarium. You can view mold growing on strawberries, a live view of the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach, remotely take control of a telescope and view the sun, or view a slide under a Leica DM RXA Microscope online. You can virtually visit famous cities and monuments around the world. There are Webcams that let you actually control the camera and move it around remotely. A Webcam "subject" is limited only by the imagination.

There are of course Webcams for security as well. Last year, an Albany fellow who set up a Webcam in his apartment watched a former maintenance worker break in and steal his computer. What the thief didn't know was the apartment dweller was snapping pictures of the theft from his office since he watched the whole break in from his work computer. He did get his equipment back.

Net-Watch.com

Explore more than 200 Webcams in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and Switzerland

The Incomplete Guide to Online Camera Connection

They call it incomplete but it lists hundreds of different Cam sites.

Live Cameras All Over the World

An alphabetical listing and links to more than 1300 Webcams from Antarctica to Outer Space.

WeatherNet

This site contains links to weather cams from all over the country arranged by State. If you want to see how the weather is in any particular city, look here. Locally, WRGB, Channel 6 has a Cam pointing in Albany.

CowCam

This cam is in the window of the network operations center of a company called Access Systems in Alloway, New Jersey. The cows' names are Hamburger and Cheeseburger. The picture is updated once every five minutes during daylight hours.

Web Cams of the World

Links to Webcams, CUSeeMe sites, robotic cams, cam software, and more.

Satellite Views of the earth

This is a great educational site. You can select from hundreds of satellites above the earth and look at whatever part of Earth their cameras are pointing. Each satellite’s position and elevation is given as well.

Peeping Tom

This site is a searchable database of Webcams so you can look by category from animals to weather.

Webcam Central

This is another site that lists Webcams by country. They have a page arranged by category too.

The WebCam Resource

Webcams listed by category and a searchable database make this a good site to visit. It has tutorials on how to run your own Webcam.

©1999 Don Rittner