Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Remote Controlled African Webcam

Q. What do remote control robotics, streaming webcam technology and Africa have in common?

A. Nothing I think.

However, when you mix the three together what you get is this very interesting webcam. It is a streaming live webcam to a water hole in South Africa. More precisely, as described on their website:

“Nkorho Pan is a natural water hole in the prestigious Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve, in South Africa. Nkorho pan is named after Nkorho bush Lodge which gets it name from the Shangaan derivative for the call of the yellow-billed hornbill, a common and unusual looking bird from this area.”

A webcam is mounted here on a large termite mound. The camera is remote controlled by an operator. It has almost 360o panning capability, it can tilt up/down, it can zoom up to 18x, and it is even equipped with an infrared light for nighttime viewing. The aparatus is also fully wired for sound capture.

If you are teaching a unit on robotics, webcam technology or Africa, this addictive webcam should be on your list of resources!

There a lot more webcams websites out there these days (Just google search to your hearts content for them) but I was really impressed by this one due to the large number of features the camera has as well as the clarity of the feed. Very nice!

If you know of any other technologically avdanced webcam setups that you would like to share with the readership of this blog, please enter a comment below. Thanks!

No comments: