| A cam, homecam, or Webcam is a video camera, usually attached
directly to a computer, whose current or latest image is requestable from
a Web site. A live cam is one that is continually providing new images that
are transmitted in rapid succession or, in some cases, in streaming video.
Sites with live cams sometimes embed them as Java applets in Web pages.
Cams have caught on; there are now (we estimate) several thousand sites
with cams. The first cams were positioned mainly on fish tanks and coffee
machines. Many of today's live cams are on sex-oriented sites. For travel
promotion, traffic information, and the remote visualization of any ongoing
event that's interesting, webcams seem like an exciting possibility that
will become more common as users get access to more bandwidth. |
