|
A web camera (or webcam) is a near real time camera who's images can be accessed using the World Wide
Web. Generally a digital camera delivers images to a web server, either continuously or at regular intervals.
Although frequently mentioned in spam email and used on pornographic web
sites, they also have many less controversial uses.
The first webcam was pointed at the Trojan room coffee
pot at the computer science department of Cambridge
University.
Initially intended for personal videoconferencing, it was quickly
realised that World Wide Web users enjoyed viewing images from cameras
set up by others elsewhere in the world. While webcam refers to the technology generally, the "Web" part is often replaced with
the "Category" of images the camera provides.
Today there are thousands of webcam that provide views into homes, offices and other buildings as well as providing panoramic
views of cities (Metrocams) and the countryside. Images from satellites are frequently posted on the World Wide Web. Webcams are
also used to monitor traffic with TraffiCams, the weather with WeatherCams and even volcanos with VolcanoCams.
This article is a stub. You can
help Wikipedia by expanding it .
|