I’ve always enjoyed Webcams. No, no, not THOSE Webcams. Just regular ol’ Webcams pointed at stuff like cubicles or busy intersections or someone’s Halloween decorations. They’re a great combination of technology and voyeurism.
I bought an iSight camera not too long after they were introduced. At the time, I wasn’t sure of much more than that the iSight was a really sweet piece of kit, but I figured that I’d find a use for it sooner or later. I had visions of Ava’s far-flung relatives tuning in online to watch her first steps or hear her first words.
Well, even though it’s 2005, some of Ava’s relatives aren’t quite up to speed enough to be able to enjoy full-frame streaming video and audio — hell, my Internet connection would probably choke trying to serve the stream anyway. Not wanting to just let the iSight sit on my desk unused, I decided to set up a Webcam. I picked up a nice little app called EvoCam that does all the camera control and even includes its own Web server.
Right now I have the camera pointing out into the back yard and taking a snapshot every 15 seconds. EvoCam gives me the option of archiving all these images and even making a time-lapse movie out of the files. I’ve not gone that far yet, but it’s tempting. As it stands, EvoCam uploads its snapshots (up to 100) into my Web server’s document root, where I can then grab them to link from the Webcam page.
Another option is to install EvoCam on the iBook and connect the iSight to that computer somewhere in the front of the house while I’m at work. It would be fun to watch the comings and goings in the ‘hood, maybe even keep track of the construction progress (or lack thereof) across the street. I could easily set the iBook to upload the snapshots to the same directory on the server via its wireless connection. Maybe I’ll try that tomorrow, if I’m permitted to work on the computer at all this evening.