Webcams are gaining tremendous popularity on the World Wide Web. The technology is not new, however, it is now easier and less expensive to set up a webcam. If you have a connection to the Web and $200, you too can set up your own camera on the Internet.
There are numerous brands of digital cameras available on the market. Some are made specifically for the Internet while other digital cameras are designed primarily to capture still pictures. The latter type of camera can still be used as a webcam with the purchase of additional hardware.
The least expensive camera to my knowledge, is the Connectix Quickcam. You can purchase a greyscale (black and white) camera for less than $100. If you are adventurous enough to try online auctions, then you may be able to pick up a greyscale camera for far less.
If you have a regular digital camera that is not designed for use as a webcam, then you will need to purchase a video capture card. Video capture cards run somewhere between $200-$300.
The system requirements will vary depending on the hardware that you purchase. Each video camera and video capture card may or may not be compatible with your current configuration. You need to review your operating system, video card, memory and hard drive space before purchasing your digital camera. Make sure the webcam hardware and accompanying software is compatible with your system. Digital cameras such as the QuickCam come with their own software for capturing video images. However, most of these software programs are not sufficient for use as webcam software.
There are many software programs available to support webcams. Some are freeware, some are shareware and others can be purchased for upwards of $50. These programs are all similar in that they are designed to capture images from your digital camera and make them available to your web page for display on the Web. They all vary in their functionality and reliability. I have tested several different programs including:
| NetSnap |
by PeleSoft | Software |
| SpyCam | by Bill Oatman | Freeware |
| Webcam | by Summersoft | Software |
| Webcam32 | by Neil Kolban | Shareware |
I would recommend Neil Kolban's Webcam32. It is extremely easy to install and compatible with most digital cameras. The program has many features and allows the user to configure various settings for optimum Webcam performance.
There are several ways of presenting your images on a web page. Which method you choose will depend on how you wish your images to appear to your audience and the resources you have available.
Server Push
Server push technology
is the most impressive yet least utilized method of webcam display. Server
push allows the images to appear as "streaming video" within a
web page. These images appear as live feed. The
limiting factors behind server push technology would be:
1) only Netscape
currently supports this
2) your computer must allow for outside access which causes security issues.
Anyone that is behind a firewall will not be able to use server push
for their webcam.
3) you must limit the amount of kilobytes in the stream otherwise a never-ending
stream of bytes will eventually crash the viewer's browser.
FTP
If your web page is
located on a remote server, as most web pages are, then you will need to
FTP your digital webcam images up to your server in order to display them
in a web page. The webcam software programs listed above all contain
methods of capturing the digital images and FTPing them to your server.
Direct Server Access
If your web page and webcam are both located on the same computer then you can have direct access to the images to be displayed. Your webcam software can save the image files locally and your web page can point directly to these local images to display them.
Once you have determined which of the above methods you will use for image presentation, then you need to decide which method of refresh mode you wish to use. If you are using server push technology then you can skip this section.
There are two methods
of refreshing your images on a web page. The first is the simplest.
META TAG Refresh
Using the META Refresh
tag, you can have your entire HTML page refreshed/reloaded so that your
newest image is then displayed in your page.
For example:
<meta http-equiv=refresh content="10">
The above HTML META tag needs to be place within the <head> tags and will cause the entire HTML page to be refreshed/reloaded every 10 seconds.
The disadvantage to this method is that the entire HTML page will be refreshed, which will take longer to load. If you have a web page with less content and do not care about the refresh/reload time then this is method may be optimal for your purposes. If you are refreshing your image with intervals over 5 minutes then I would suggest using the META Refresh tag.
Java Applet Refresh
You may add a Java Applet to your web page to refresh the images. This method, although more complicated and sometimes problematic, is more suited for those who desire faster refresh rates.
You can download the JavaCam Applet from the Webcam32 site. There you will find detailed instructions on using the Java Applet to refresh your images at predefined intervals.
For those of you who wish to have your images refreshing at 3-7 second intervals using the Java Applet, there are several factors involved.
1) Speed of your connection
if you are using FTP to upload your images to a remote server.
2) Speed of the machine viewing your images. The refresh rate of the
images varies with each machine that loads the Java Applet.
3) Speed of the
connection of the machine viewing your images. If the viewer has a
slower connection, then the images will refresh at a slower rate.
4) The interval at which you have set your Java Applet to refresh.
5) The FTP interval which you have set to upload your images up to the server.
6) The image size you are uploading.
In my opinion, the image size is key to the refresh rate. The dimensions and quality of the image determines the image file size. You can play around with the image quality to change the file size, allowing for faster uploading and refreshing. Keep in mind that you may be sacrificing image quality for speed. It is a trade off that you may not wish to make if high image quality is an important factor in your webcam presentation.
You may wish to give your viewers the option of adding a remote or floating window cam so that they may continue to browse your site while still keeping your webcam image in view.
This requires adding JavaScript to your page as well as creating a separate page that contains the same HTML to display your webcam images. In other words, you will need a new HTML page that contains the same Java Applet code or META Refresh tag but without any other content so that the floating window displays only the webcam image and nothing else.
The JavaScript for the
remote camera/floating window is beyond the scope of this technical discussion,
but may be added at a later date.
|
OfficeCam Hardware
- System Hardware
- Digital Camera Software
- System Software
- Webcam |
HomeCam Hardware
- System Hardware
- Digital Camera Software
- System Software
- Webcam |
Connection Speed - Work:
T3 line
Home:
33.6K bps
Using Webcam32 v4.8.0:
Java Applet Refresh
Interval - 3 seconds
FTP Upload Interval - 2 seconds
Image Quality 80-90
Image Dimensions - 160x120
These settings allow for an image refresh interval ranging anywhere from 3 seconds to 10 seconds depending on all factors listed in Refresh Rate section above.
A Word about Webcams and Webcam Pages
If you do decide to implement a webcam on your web site, it is highly recommended that you test your webcam and your webcam page before you go "live". Make sure the images are uploaded correctly and that they can be viewed by others. Ideally, you should test against different browsers and operating systems to guarantee cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility. Enlist your friends to participate in any testing and verify that it is functioning to your expectations. I went through 6 days of "Beta" testing before I added a live link to my home page to my webcam page.
A Small Favor...
If you have found any of the information on this page helpful and plan to use this to set up your webcam, please add a link to BaddGrrl's Domain on your website. You can find buttons, banners and various images for links here:
Thank you and good luck!
Lorraine
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