I created a little ‘How To’ a month ago where I explained how to use the Motion Eye to create a webcam that multiple users can see.

I’ve decided to setup a demo of this so people can see how good the quality is.

The demo will consist of a small program I wrote that will display the time on my PC while the TR films it. Its not too interesting but it serves 2 purposes:

1. Shows the time delay.
2. Shows how quickly it can refresh.

I will then have another camera (this one on my Clie NX80) filming the TR filming the PC. The users should be able to see that image as well.

This will all be done wirelessly…both the TR and the Clie will be connected via WiFi to my network for broadcast.

The demo will run Friday, June 10th, from 12:30pm EST to 8pm EST. I will allow 5 users at one time.

I am sure those who wish to view will log-in for only a few minutes at most, so if the server is busy, try again in a few minutes.

For those wishing to participate…I will update this post with the login details on Friday around 12pm EST.

Users must have Winamp installed on their PC with the Video portion installed in order to view the footage.

Thank you,
Erik

Great idea Erik!

If anyone else wants to do the same thing (and know how to) then maybe they should schedule it around the same time. That way, not everyone is trying to kill Erik’s server and more people can see this type of thing in action.

If I’m not using mine, I could set one up too…I’d probably just have it setup facing my TV while playing episodes of Futurama with the subtitles on. 

It may be informative for people to know what kind of connection you’re hosting the site on and what your theorectical/actual uplink is.

I plan to do a report of my internet connection that day from broadband reports.

Erik

Sounds cool. Keep us posted!

erik: sounds really great.  i’ve been wondering about this whole internet cast since you wrote about it a while ago.  i’ve been toying around with the same idea and it’ll be great to see what kinda of quality can be achieved from the tr.  i hope to check it out tomorrow.

Good news…I did a dry run today, so far, so good.

I needed to use my 10” Airpanel instead of my monitors…for some reason (even though I fooled with the refresh rate) I was getting horrible lines through the video.

The TR will be focused on the Airpanel which will display my ‘Current time’ program. You will also be able to see a video feed coming from my Clie. The Clie is setup so that you can see both the TR and the Airpanel. It almost looks like a static image because the 2 devices are not moving.

If anyone has a better idea of how I should setup the clie, please let me know.

Tomorrow I will post the address, the broadband report, as well as an image of the entire setup.

Thanks,
Erik

Demo is up and running.

Currently I am getting less then 1 minute lag.
176kbps 320x240 @ 14.98fps

From Winamp:

Go to Play->File-> 67.81.54.161:8000/;stream.nsv

Only 5 at a time, since its nothing special, if its busy, try a few minutes later.

I’ll do broadband report later, I need to run.

I will do another demo with more moving objects next time.

Thanks,
Erik

I think it went alright. I checked the log…over 50 users logged in to view the demo.

For some reason it stopped at 7:39pm (strage how thats the same time my GF came home).

I hope people got to see just how fluid the system can be when done right. I will run a broadband report in a bit and post what I get.

Thanks,
Erik

Finally, the report:

2004-06-12 12:46:01 EST: 4840 / 832
Your download speed : 4957066 bps, or 4840 kbps.
A 605.1 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 852500 bps, or 832 kbps.

Feel free to comment.
Cablevision Cable, $39.99 a month.

Erik

Damn -missed it, any chance of another demo??

Yeah, i’m working on another one for next week…i’ll keep everyone posted.

Erik

On that note…could it be possilbe to rig these webcams on the fly and have them write to a webpage? TR Webcams around the world.  I know jiggy’s in nepal, so there should be some interesting images…

~!nox

[quote author=“nox”]On that note…could it be possilbe to rig these webcams on the fly and have them write to a webpage? TR Webcams around the world.  I know jiggy’s in nepal, so there should be some interesting images…

~!nox

Yes. Its actually quite easy. Microsoft has a free tool that will allow an image to be sent to an FTP site and then you have your HTML auto update every X amount of seconds. Its not a ‘webcam’ or motion video, its just 1 or 2 frames per second, still images.

Erik

I’d be down for doing something like that.  Not very bandwidth intensive either, which is good because i only have 192kbps upload to play with…