I See You

Continued from page 2

By Simson Garfinkel

March 5, 2003

If you don't need pan-and-zoom, you might want to take a look at the Axis 2100, a sweet little all-in-one affair that a variety of online merchants sell for less than $300.

Setting up the Axis camera was an adventure. Before I could open a Web browser to the camera, I had to find the camera's hardware address, then type an "arp" command to assign it an IP address. Apart from that voodoo, however, things are pretty straightforward: there's even a "wizard" that steps you through the configuration, including the all-important password setting so that other people can't take over your camera.

Like the Panasonic camera, the Axis has screw terminals to support an optional alarm switch. You can program the camera to upload pictures continuously or whenever the alarm is triggered. You can also connect the Axis camera directly to a modem. The camera can dial up an ISP, transmit a username and password, and then stream photos over the dial-up connection.

The disadvantage of the Axis 2100 is that the camera itself is quite cheap. For example, it can't take direct sunlight. There's no remote focus and no pan-and-zoom. On the other hand, it largely works as advertised and it's easy to set up.

Axis also sells a number of stand-alone video servers that let you turn any off-the-shelf video camera into a webcam. For example, the Axis 2400 takes in four video streams and typically sells for $1200; the 2401 takes two video streams and costs around $700.

Finally, you can turn any of those $50 USB cameras into a webcam using Personal Webcasting from iVista software. Priced at $50, the software includes a built-in Web server, the ability to serve video or audio streams, and a neat feature that lets you serve video from your computer's desktop as well. That makes this system good for remote tech support and training. Although you can replicate some of these features with Microsoft's NetMeeting software, iVista is easier to use and works with an ordinary Web browser on the other end. I tried it and thought it was pretty cool.

Ironically, now that I've got my camera, I've come to the realization that I'm much more interested in looking at things than people. For example, I can look at the front door and see if a package has been left there. A few years ago in Cambridge, Airborne Express left a $3,000 computer on my doorstep while I was out of town for a 3-day long weekend. Fortunately, it was there when I returned, but if I had this camera then, I could have seen the package and asked a friend to pick it up.

One issue that I've stayed clear of in this article is the impact of video surveillance on privacy. But in avoiding that issue, I'm not much more different than society at large. Although many people don't like being photographed by some faceless surveillance force at a mall or in a government building, they think nothing of turning the tables with cameras of their own.

I'm just the same way.

Check out a screen shot from the Panasonic camera at http://www.simson.net/panasonic.jpg. Next month I'll be writing about Bluetooth. Got a good Bluetooth story? Drop me a note!