It all began as the marriage of cheap monitor-top cameras and
the unlimited access internet accounts. The things they do on camera may shock some, and
make others yawn. But this is TV without the ball and chain. And, as Angelo observes,
you've ain't seen nothing yet.
History
was surely made on June 13 1888. For all those wishing to pillory the Internet for every
possible aberration, let it be known that TV was the culprit, when a 40-year old woman
from Florida gave birth live on the Net. Whether the world's first online birth was an
Orlando cable TV station's idea of media integration, or improving its ratings, is now
beside the point. The event brings to question the sudden seductive power of cameras, and
the use of what's known as WebCams.
"What's
a web site?" asked Harry Fuller, general manager of a San Francisco TV station. The
year was 1994. He had no clue. When his engineer informed him that a video camera, mounted
atop a nearby hotel to provide live weather footage, was being fed to the station's web
site, Fuller, like a lot of us, hadn't even heard of the Internet. The concept of WebCams
hadn’t arrived. But even while the primitive link was drawing visitors to the site,
Netheads were finding out that pictures of their pet or a piece of furniture in their room
could enhance their typically boring home page. A ‘web mistress’ at a Santa Cruz
company similarly stumbled on the power of the live picture when she used a digital camera
to update images of the office cat. Don't let it baffle you as to why the 'resident
mouser' is such a celeb; (the 'Hello Kitty page at www.hellokitty.com drew nearly 200,000 visitors in 4
months). It's got less to do with human voyeurism, and more to do with our animal
curiosity that, contrary to popular belief, hasn’t killed any web-cat. But it‘s
not only the odd TV station or Silicon Valley start-up that have been experimenting with
the camera lens. People across the globe are finding that the cheap, CuSeeMe variety of
cameras could do more extraordinary things
Inevitably
the exhibitionists have had a field day, and with the increasing quality of digital
optics, a cottage industry in adult content has cropped up. The most notorious of these,
JenniCam, was one girl's way of broadcasting every minutiae of her life with as much
inhibition (and economic savvy) as a Playboy bunny. There is more. If you can bear the
tease, I'll get to that in a moment. So why is this column giving publicity to the
electronic equivalent of tabloid journalism? It’s not. The point I’m trying to
make is that life does exist outside the gutter. So instead of trashing all media because
of the smut-arazzi, it’s time somebody pointed out the less titillating stuff out
there. Behind the much-hyped 'Internet delivery', exists a larger universe of practical,
and sometimes adventurous life forms on camera that has gone unnoticed. And it's not the
kind that came in to the world kicking and screaming at the Arnold Palmer hospital. Maybe
their video feeds are not as shocking or controversial, but there are WebCams attached to
devices where few TV cameras fear to tread.
ALL
WEATHER WEBCAMS. These are now becoming as ubiquitous as
speed cameras on busy freeways. In Phoenix alone, the Department of Transportation has
approximately 30 cameras that show you the traffic condition. The pictures get updated
every 10 seconds.
SHUTTLE
LAUNCHES. At the Kennedy Space Center (http://www.ambitweb.com/nasacams/nasacams.html)
you'll find regular coverage of all its launches --something too 'boring' for TV!
WILD
LIFE: The National Geographic Society has a site that allows you to
look at a live animal, say, a leopard, and by clicking on the picture with a mouse,
you actually control the camera angle. Go to www.perceptualrobotics.com/live/liveatl.htm/
Apparently Kieko the whale featured in Free Willy also makes an appearance on the site
WIMBLEDON:Your
TV station will most probably cover the matches but to see the action unfiltered by the
news stations, there are two live cams. Center Court only a click away.
ROBOTICS:
But the most intriguing use of a controllable camera is the one at the Australian National
University, in Canberra. Its Telerobot project allows us to use this html medium to
make the robot pick up objects, and the results are fed back to us in real time. Try
it only if you have Java.
So
while the world is obsessing or gawking at the more controversial stuff of WebCams, there
is a lot of activity on the web that might be worth watching out for. It's called life
--and it's at a mousepad near you. |
