Wacky World of Webcams
Dec. 31 -- Browse around the Internet and you'll notice a not-so-subtle change. Instead of just plain text and static digital images, many Web sites are showing off live, video views of people, places or unusual objects such as fish tanks.
Welcome to the widening world of Webcams — video cameras that transmit whatever is in front of the lens out to the millions of Internet surfers who may care to watch.
Web camera technology isn't very new. Large and tech-savvy organizations have been featuring digital video features on their Web sites for years.
But Webcams have become so simple and cheap that they are spreading rapidly among ordinary, technically unsophisticated home computer users.
Making Paris and Llamas Visible Online
Search for "Webcams" on Yahoo or any other Internet search engine and a list of hundreds of Webcam sites pop up. Most are sites that host scenic views of famous — and not so famous — locales. But some are also sites that are just lists of other Webcam sites — many of which offer strange online attractions.
At Earthcam.com, for example, there are the usual Webcams — live pictures from space-based satellites and college computer rooms, for example. But Web watchers can also find online links to "Steve's Ant Farm" in Washington, D.C., a "Beer Lover's Cam" in Los Angeles, and a "Llama Cam" in Indianapolis.
"Five years ago you saw maybe a couple of Webcams here or there [on the Internet]," says Mark Klatte, an associate producer for TechTV, a cable-TV network and Web site that covers the computer and technology industries. "Now they are all over the place."
Simple and Cheap
As the name implies, a Webcam is simply a video camera attached to a computer connected to the Internet. Software installed on the computer periodically grabs still images, or frames, from the camera and sends them to a Web server on the Internet. The Web server then distributes the frames as needed — as part of a display on a Web page, for example.
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