High-Resolution, Realtime Video Webcam
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2005 8:45 pmAs requested, here is some information of realtime webcams. The camera would be something like this
http://www.axis.com/products/cam_213/index.htm
The camera outputs really high quality video. The limiting factor would be our connection speed. SBC's highest available upload spead is 385-512kb/s. With a static IP address, that would be $75 per month. I don't know what options there are if we need a larger bandwidth, but there must be some way to accomidate that. I'll see if I can find out what people/companies in this area use for higher bandwidth applications.
The Camera I have linked runs around $2,000. Probably we would need some mounting hardware and a 'dome' for mounting it outdoors as well, so the total cost would be a bit more. There are other cameras that are a bit cheaper ($1,200 ish) that do not offer the tip/tilt/zoom of the 213 linked above.
These cameras (if they work as planed) would allow people to zoom in with enough detail to see who was in the setup area. They support around 30 frames per second, which is the equivalent of a tv, so the video could be realtime.
One potential problem with a system like this is that since we would have limited bandwidth, the performance of the system would depend on the number of people trying to access it at any one time. If people were accessing the camera and then just leaving it running on their computer, it would slow down the setup. That said, there is probably some way to include a 'time-out' setting on the camera's IP access to prevent such things.
Brian
http://www.axis.com/products/cam_213/index.htm
The camera outputs really high quality video. The limiting factor would be our connection speed. SBC's highest available upload spead is 385-512kb/s. With a static IP address, that would be $75 per month. I don't know what options there are if we need a larger bandwidth, but there must be some way to accomidate that. I'll see if I can find out what people/companies in this area use for higher bandwidth applications.
The Camera I have linked runs around $2,000. Probably we would need some mounting hardware and a 'dome' for mounting it outdoors as well, so the total cost would be a bit more. There are other cameras that are a bit cheaper ($1,200 ish) that do not offer the tip/tilt/zoom of the 213 linked above.
These cameras (if they work as planed) would allow people to zoom in with enough detail to see who was in the setup area. They support around 30 frames per second, which is the equivalent of a tv, so the video could be realtime.
One potential problem with a system like this is that since we would have limited bandwidth, the performance of the system would depend on the number of people trying to access it at any one time. If people were accessing the camera and then just leaving it running on their computer, it would slow down the setup. That said, there is probably some way to include a 'time-out' setting on the camera's IP access to prevent such things.
Brian