For the Where-When assignment, I built an applet that shows video feeds from 3 different networked cameras. The first of these cameras is located in a street in Lisbon, Portugal, the second a pub in Manchester, UK, and the third an internet cafe in Moscow, Russia.
I used the networked camera code as a starting point. After finding that there wasn’t much going on in front of the ITP cameras that I could access, I decided to look for public cameras elsewhere. I came across a website called Opentopia.com that streams feeds from public IP cameras around the world. After some trial and error, I realized that the code we were given only works with Axis brand IP cams. Luckily, Opentopia lists the manufacturers for most of the cameras on the site. I picked three Axis cameras in locations that I liked and used their IP addresses for my applet.
One thing I found is that this applet is absolutely mesmerizing when I leave it running for a while. It is hard not to people-watch. I became invested in the people at the Manchester pub especially, since the camera provided such an intimate view of its patrons.
Here is a short video I made of the applet at work: http://vimeo.com/37480373