hiker writes...

is it a standard digicam with a time lapse - web connect option?

that would be my guess

hayythere writes...

I noticed the closest building in the bottom right corner is blurred!!

I want to spy, I demand it be unblurred!!

This is due to the focal point he has set on the camera, it can be done automatically or manually by focus

jcs86 writes...

This is due to the focal point he has set on the camera, it can be done automatically or manually by focus

Actually it's not. You're right, it can be but in this case he has simply blurred a square out. You can see it along the roof line and at the end of the balconies.

hayythere writes...

I want to spy, I demand it be unblurred!!

He quotes on his page that its blurred so that people can't spy on the apartment :-P

hayythere writes...

I want to spy, I demand it be unblurred!!

Don't worry - I've been in the room where the camera is set up - nothing interesting to see in the apartments!

wanderer51 writes...

If you click on the section 'Setup your own webcam' it will tell you what he used

Thanks for that link wanderer - some useful stuff there!

hiker writes...

1. How you get a digicam to take a pic every 30secs

The program interfaces with the camera. Basically the camera sits in preview mode, much like you'd see when shooting a photo, without the details on screen (aperture), its just what the CMOS sensor is seeing. Thats fed to the program, which in turn snaps the pic whenever required.

2. How you then publish those images to a web address?

You either set the program to upload to your remote server automatically, or to a folder on your PC. Then you link within a HTML file (if you want a webpage) to the picture, ie. MostRecentPicture.jpg . Then the most recent picture would be displayed. You can dive deeper into that, ie. indexing, but you'd probably want to google that, as theres a multitude of ways to set it up.

Thresh writes...

I wonder if there is any compression? Raw pics would be a bummer!

Compression and diameters etc. can be set in the program :-)

hiker writes...

1. How you get a digicam to take a pic every 30secs
and
2. How you then publish those images to a web address?


As Richie said. This is all controlled by the software. The camera justs 'looks'. The software captures an image at a pre determined (by you) interval. This can be anywhere (depending on what you want) from a couple of seconds to >7 days, or by movement detection only (IE, the software will continuously compare the image with one from (for instance) a couple of seconds ago, and if anything has changed then it 'snaps' a pic and does with it what you have told it to do,...this can be uploading it to the web, storing it on your HD or emailing it to you, or a combination of all three). The image is then published to the web according to what you have told the software....EG You tell it to ftp the image to a site.....in my case this would be:
ftp.users.tpg.com.au/{username}/
You then tell the software your username, password and the image name. The webpage you have created then auto reloads the image at the interval that it is uploaded...IE if you upload an image every 10secs, then the page refreshes the image every 10 secs. As an example, here is my camera, but please note that (currently) it is only online every 'now and then' and although it will refresh it will only show the same image (while offline):
users.tpg.com.au/athorncr
You can view the page source code by clicking View>Page Source (Firefox). It is a simple piece of free Java code that refreshes the image without refreshing the entire page. The rest of the page you have to create yourself of course. I can't remember where I got the Java code from, but I do still have it. You do have to fiddle with it to get it to do what you want, but this is quite easy.

Edited for spelling errors

Lloydo writes...

Thanks, should have guessed it being a Sony it wouldn't be compatible with anything.

likes.no.others

Check out here:
www.gphoto.org/proj/libgphoto2/support.php

Looks like things might have changed. I might have to look around for an old (cheap) camera, load Linux onto the old PC and have a crack at this.

wanderer51 writes...

Check out here:
www.gphoto.org/proj/libgphoto2/support.php

That list's for cameras that gphoto can talk to for retrieval of photos. Unfortunately it seems that remote control requires a level of functionality above "PTP mode"

But give it a go by all means!

wanderer51 writes...

Looks like things might have changed. I might have to look around for an old (cheap) camera, load Linux onto the old PC and have a crack at this.

It's painful! I picked up an old Canon Powershot A40 on Ebay with this intention, but failed completely to get it to remotely capture with any Linux software that I could find (including GPhoto)

In the end I gave up and resorted to using it in Windows with a program called PSRemote (the guy with the Melbourne webcam also uses this software).

Woz writes...

In the end I gave up and resorted to using it in Windows with a program called PSRemote (the guy with the Melbourne webcam also uses this software).

Thought I recognised the name (PSRemote) from somewhere. After a hunt around I found it on a CD I was given some time ago. Didn't realise what it was for (Stupid me thought it was some sort of remote control program to control your PC...so I never looked at it). Have installed it and had a look...off to find an old Canon camera tomorrow and give it a go.
Will let you know the outcome.

Woz writes...

Check my profile

Is that your site Woz? It is really awesome. The time lapse of the harbour is so freaking cool, I especially love the part where the sky colour is changing and the clouds are zooming past like they are commuting to work as the people on the Manly ferry do the same underneath them!