Webcam software recomendations?

[JohnWPB]

I have been scouring Google for hours now, looking for web cam software. I need it to support "server push" so I can view the stream in Safari On the iPhone. The iPhone does not support Java or Flash, so server push is all that will work.

Here is a demo that uses server push, and works great to view it on the iphone. (Login and pass is guest/guest)

I think Webcam32 was capable of server push, but they are now defunct. I haven't used any web cam software in a longgggg time so am kinda out of the loop so to speak.

Any suggestions?

 

[CollinR]

You mean like USB camera or real CCTV stuff?

 

[roussell]

Can offer anything except to say that "server-push" is pretty much a misnomer and that it basically boils down to tricks to keep the connection open on the client. The server offers a multi-part mixed-type header and then updated images as they become available. The browser client sees it as one image that never seems to finish loading. If you're feeling crafty, you can write your own "push" agent for any series of images without too much effort. It's pretty trivial in PHP and I would assume other languages as well. That being said, you can use your webcan software of choice and just have it dump the updated image inthe same spot on the webserver, the webcam page code can then take on teh task of "pushing" it to the client.

If you're interested, I can try to throw something together and post it.

Also, I don't have an iPhone, but I thought it did support Flash... Doesn't it play youtube videos? I thought they were all flash - surely youtube isn't keeping a flash copy and an iPhone-specific copy of every video. Maybe they're transcoding real time to a different format...

Terry

 

[JohnWPB]

You mean like USB camera or real CCTV stuff?

In my case its a USB camera. Doesn't really matter though, as with just about any webcam software, you just tell it what the source is you want to use, USB, Capture Card, IP camera ect ect...

Can offer anything except to say that "server-push" is pretty much a misnomer and that it basically boils down to tricks to keep the connection open on the client. The server offers a multi-part mixed-type header and then updated images as they become available. The browser client sees it as one image that never seems to finish loading.
Terry

Thanks Terry, yea, I kinda knew that part. I just needed a web cam package that would do the "pushing" -vs- uploading a static image every x seconds, or one that streamed in WMV format, or required a java client to view.

After tons of searching, and downloading and installing something like 10 different web cam programs, I came across WebCamXP. It has an option to use server push as a form of transmitting the image(s).

On my iPhone, I am getting a good 5-10 FPS on 3G, and almost live video using the home wireless network. I just bookmarked the page in Safari, saved it as an icon on the spring board (Desktop) and with one tap can view the camera live from anywhere.

 

[JeffCharger]

I think Webcam32 was capable of server push, but they are now defunct. I haven't used any web cam software in a longgggg time so am kinda out of the loop so to speak.

Any suggestions?

John, I still use webcam32. Although they don't support it anymore, I think they still sell it. It works quite well.....

 

[twilo123]

i'm not sure about the server push portion but i can view ip cameras and video encoders through a native app on the iphone. i know i can because i submitted the app for approval recently. see www.totalcontrolapp.com for details.

i tried the safari route for my apps and found it very limiting from a development point of view for a number or reasons. it can work for basic streams though.

i would be curious to know how you can tell that your iphone is actually getting a 5-10fps rate. i mean many programs tell you at what frame rate it is 'pushing' the video out at but that doesn't translate into what fps your phone is actually processing it at and i know of no tools on the iphone as of yet to do this.


i mean below is a good article on trying to calculate an estimation of frame rates. just to round everything off if we use the calculations for a resolution size of 352 x 240 (i know iphone screen spec is much larger than this but i doubt you are using full screen with safari are you?) the article estimates a generous 10kb for each mjpg image which need to be converted into serial bit rate so they multiply by 10. So at 10bits/Byte, 10Kbytes equals 100 Kbits. The bandwidth is directly related to the frames per second (fps). If the frame rate is set for 1 frame/sec, the bandwidth or data rate generated is 100K bits/sec. so for the 5-10fps you state you will need bandwidth of 500-1000K bits/sec. on att's website (http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/why/technology/edge.jsp) they claim that EDGE provides 75-135Kbps. Seems there is a huge discrepancy here. i asked because i've racked my head over the very same thing on 3g and wifi and cannot figure a direct way of testing the fps right on the iphone. the fps from the camera itself doesn't really matter if the phone/bandwidth doesn't support it.

http://www.imakenews.com/kin2/e_article000...3.cfm?x=b11,0,w


Rob