Browser-Controlled Web Cams Stake Out New Ground

Ever desire to move a camera around Madison Square Garden in New York, while sitting at your desk and using a browser? Perceptual Robotics, Inc. (PRI), at www.perceptualrobotics.com, offers iCam, one of the few software-server systems for Web sites that deliver interactive and streaming images.

"Our goals are to provide high interactivity and a high-quality image to as many viewers as possible," said PRI VP of Sales Kevin Convery. "We’ve carved out a pretty unique niche, in that iCam can provide a real-time experience to an audience that can be anywhere from one to a massive number."

What makes iCam different from the typical "Web cam" is that the user can control the camera by clicking on the image in the browser window. In one of the iCam versions, wherever you click in the image will move the camera to that object and deliver a new JPEG to the browser. (Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) represents a widely used graphics format.)

Mercedes-Benz used a PRI system to enable browser users to view the Mercedes models at the 1998 Auto Shows in Chicago and New York. At the 1998 NBA Finals, eight PRI cameras were clustered into a "super camera" that allowed numerous Web visitors to deploy the system.

You can view different iCam products in action at the National Geographic Society’s Explorer’s Hall, at the following Web site: http://www.perceptualrobotics.com/live.

"We sell the digital video camera, the PC site server, and the cabling for the hardware," Convery explained. "The camera-controlled software is configured on to that site-server box."

(Contact: Kevin Convery, 847-475-0512, E-mail info@perceptualrobotics.com)