Final CamStreams Webcam Layout, etc...
As promised earlier, here's a slightly better diagram of the layout for the eBirdseed webcam. With a little luck, it might lend clarity to the first rough drawing.
Alrighty then, with the illustration out of the way, still something nags... What to do with the cam??? Yes, yes, yes... The hummingbirds are cool indeed. But what else?
- The camera, (like most cameras with small lenses) handles close-ups quite well. Perhaps we should encase it in a waterproof housing and perch it 2" away from our usual feeder. It would take a relay to get the signal back to the PC with the USB 802.11g 54Mbps adapter, but the technology is very doable.
- Then again, as mentioned earlier, a fish cam at night could be cool. What would be really neat is an "inside-the-tank" cam looking out.
- How about a "yard cam" that would focus on all of the back yard?
Ultimately, the challenge for this type of technology isn't the technology itself - it's trying to figure out how to use it. Put another way, if we could place a live-motion camera anywhere we wanted relative to birds, where would we put it? What perspective would you like to see?
Need some feedback here folks... (Else I'm going to use my imagination, and we all know that that ain't pretty...)
Waiting with the clapperboard over by the feeders,
CapeCodAlan
P.S. Interesting to note, that in less than 1 week into this eBirdseed.com cam project, we've had over 1,000 visitors on our CamStreams site. No doubt that more than a few of the camera hits were mine as I was testing the system. But beyond that, it also goes without saying that folks are tuning in...
eBirdseed.com photo library