Another webcam from Tom

Information about this camera is below

This web page uses client pull (META REFRESH tag) to automatically reload this web page every fifteen seconds (don't bother trying to go faster, the pictures don't come any faster than that). If your browser doesn't even support this, just reload every 15 seconds or so (your browser may have a special way of reloading that also reloads images, e.g. older Netscapes used to use Shift-Reload). You probably got here from the server push version of the web page, which is the "default".

Yes, I did in fact put on the web one of the earliest web cameras ever. I can document the software as early as May 1994, although I'm pretty sure I got things working over the winter before that. I can't remember if my inspiration was that someone else put a camera on the web, or that someone else had a camera on the Mbone in their office. (Mbone is the Multicast backbone, which provides for efficient simoultaneous transmission of video and audio). If you happen to know of any very early cameras and dates, let me know, (Click here to email). The Coffee Pot Cam claims to have been on the Internet in 1993, so that probably predates my camera. The WearCam proabably came online at a similar time to my camera.

I actually put two cameras on the web at the same time (because we had two), one in my office, which I pointed out of the window, and one in Frank's office. Frank worked "for me" at the time. He's apparently less inhibited, and aimed his camera at his desk. It wasn't long before he was stalked. (The stalker says 1995, I don't recall having the cameras online for such an extended period of time, but its possible. Or its possible he got his date wrong. I got my dates from files on a backup tape). I'm the "third guy" in the series of photos.

There was also a very unfortunate picture of me captured from Frank's camera.

The new web cam

The new web cam is implemented on top of my old QV-300 digital camera, and now updates about once every fifteen seconds (thanks to software improvements). It is grainy because we keep the lights off in our office (and because the camera sucks, but it is mostly the lighting). The software is available on an "as-is" basis.

It is located in my office, but points past my LCD monitory at the door, and the mail slots of several people.

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Check out the webcam software
About my Casio QV-300 camera


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