Since the porting of the webcam onto the new PC at the beginning of this year, there have been some instabilities: the image appears suddenly not to be updated, while the software still sends new images in a regular time interval to the server. But these images are constant - so on the webcam viewers (embedded images in websites such as this blog) the image appears not to change, while the timestamp is constantly being updated.
On the capture PC, this problem shows up as the software running properly, but the image just being black. No error message or exception was reported. The same version of the software runs fine in the Back-Caedmon camera; so I assume that the problem lies with the PC in 101 Caedmon which may be too slow. Today I have reduced the image capture size from 1280x1024 to 640x480, in order to reduce the requirements of bandwidth, image storage and processing for each captured frame. I will have to monitor if this solves the problem.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Back-Caedmon Camera Off
The camera in my new office facing into the back parking lot between Caedmon Hall and Priestley Hall has been switched off over the weekend - the USB cam is needed for another project. So for the time being, there will be the only the most recent image shown in the top right corner of this blog.
I assume that I will be able to switch this camera on again on Monday morning.
I assume that I will be able to switch this camera on again on Monday morning.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
New Software Testing
The latest version of the camera capture software is now under beta test with the Back-Caedmon camera in my office (see top right small image on this blog).
The main feature of this version is that it measures the change within an image with respect to a reference image, and when this change exceeds a threshold, it automatically captures a new image. This will change the picture automatically more frequently when there are activities in the scene.
There is a baseline capture frequency, set at 10 minutes. When 10 minutes are over, a new image is captured, independent of the change, and it is then used as the new reference image. This reference baseline capture could be extended to longer times.
From first experiments today, it can be seen that the time interval for the automatically captured images is around 3-7 minutes, when the threshold for change is set to a value of 10 (this value is normalised to 255: a max value of 255 would mean that all pixels in an image change from completely black=0 to completely white=255).
I will keep the Back-Caedmon camera running with this software, and if it runs stable I will then update the regular Headingley-Caedmon Webcam with this version.
The main feature of this version is that it measures the change within an image with respect to a reference image, and when this change exceeds a threshold, it automatically captures a new image. This will change the picture automatically more frequently when there are activities in the scene.
There is a baseline capture frequency, set at 10 minutes. When 10 minutes are over, a new image is captured, independent of the change, and it is then used as the new reference image. This reference baseline capture could be extended to longer times.
From first experiments today, it can be seen that the time interval for the automatically captured images is around 3-7 minutes, when the threshold for change is set to a value of 10 (this value is normalised to 255: a max value of 255 would mean that all pixels in an image change from completely black=0 to completely white=255).
I will keep the Back-Caedmon camera running with this software, and if it runs stable I will then update the regular Headingley-Caedmon Webcam with this version.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Problem with the Webcam
There appears to be a problem with the webcam system: the communication between the camera and the capture software stops, and no new image is captured. This happened now already for several times in the last few days - the current image, for example, is one from during the day. It appears that the software keeps running and uploading the same file - hence the new image date/time. But the image itself remains the same.
The reason for this could be either the cold which influences the camera itself, or the new PC and its OS environment where the capture software is running. I can now compare this PC with the "old" PC which now runs the Caedmon-Back-Camera. This one also had shown the connection error today during the day, but now appears to run stable. I will check tomorrow.
The reason for this could be either the cold which influences the camera itself, or the new PC and its OS environment where the capture software is running. I can now compare this PC with the "old" PC which now runs the Caedmon-Back-Camera. This one also had shown the connection error today during the day, but now appears to run stable. I will check tomorrow.
New Software Version - and Additional Location
The capture software has been upgraded to allow a slightly easier use.
In addition, a second instance of the webcam has now been set up in my office, showing a view onto the parking lot between Caedmon Hall and Priestley Hall. This webcam will not be advertised much, but will be embedded in a few of my sites for esperimentation. It also will allow me to test new features before releasing them onto the main webcam which points to the Acre.
In addition, a second instance of the webcam has now been set up in my office, showing a view onto the parking lot between Caedmon Hall and Priestley Hall. This webcam will not be advertised much, but will be embedded in a few of my sites for esperimentation. It also will allow me to test new features before releasing them onto the main webcam which points to the Acre.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Webcam Running with Acre View Again
The Leeds Met Caedmon Webcam is again at its location in office 101. After I had moved office in the beginning of November 2009, I had to dismantle the camera setup and take it with me to my new office location, which did not have such an attractive view (into the back of the buildings Caedmon Hall and Priestley Hall). However, the plan was to setup a new PC, and the webcam would be operated further.
This did not work initially, as there were some technical issues with that PC, and I did not have the time to take care of these issues during the past 2 months. Yesterday, however, I was able to setup the software properly and to reinstate the web cam setup at its original location. Since this morning, camera images from the Acre and the James Graham Building are sent again to our web server.
As you see, there is now a winter wonderland here in Leeds - a snow blanket of at least 15 cm is covering everything, making road traffic a nightmare, but providing a wonderful sight!
This did not work initially, as there were some technical issues with that PC, and I did not have the time to take care of these issues during the past 2 months. Yesterday, however, I was able to setup the software properly and to reinstate the web cam setup at its original location. Since this morning, camera images from the Acre and the James Graham Building are sent again to our web server.
As you see, there is now a winter wonderland here in Leeds - a snow blanket of at least 15 cm is covering everything, making road traffic a nightmare, but providing a wonderful sight!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Webcam at Temporary Location
A happy New Year 2010 to everyone!
In the past two months the webcam has been down. The reason for this was that a new PC had to be used in order to keep the webcam at the same location, and there were some issues regarding the installation of that software which I had no time to address, due to other work that I had to do. I am now addressing these issues, and I hope to have the webcam up and running again at the previous location.
As a temporary fix, I am now using the previous PC where the functioning release of the capture software is running. This does NOT point to the Leeds Met Acre and the James Graham building, but points instead to the parking lot between the Caedmon and Priestley buildings. This view is less attractive than the front view of the James Graham building, but since it is currently snowing, the view is not that bad.
The issue regarding the software is quite strange: despite having installed the latest .NET releases, the installation routine requires some particular files to be installed. It could be that these are a part of MS Visual Studio, which had been installed on both the PCs where I had developed and used the webcam before. I hope to figure this out soon. In the meantime, the camera will be operational from this view behind Caedmon Hall. The building in sight (to the right) is Priestley Hall. In the background on the left you can see the Metceno building. And at the extreme right there is a part of Caedmon Hall.
In the past two months the webcam has been down. The reason for this was that a new PC had to be used in order to keep the webcam at the same location, and there were some issues regarding the installation of that software which I had no time to address, due to other work that I had to do. I am now addressing these issues, and I hope to have the webcam up and running again at the previous location.
As a temporary fix, I am now using the previous PC where the functioning release of the capture software is running. This does NOT point to the Leeds Met Acre and the James Graham building, but points instead to the parking lot between the Caedmon and Priestley buildings. This view is less attractive than the front view of the James Graham building, but since it is currently snowing, the view is not that bad.
The issue regarding the software is quite strange: despite having installed the latest .NET releases, the installation routine requires some particular files to be installed. It could be that these are a part of MS Visual Studio, which had been installed on both the PCs where I had developed and used the webcam before. I hope to figure this out soon. In the meantime, the camera will be operational from this view behind Caedmon Hall. The building in sight (to the right) is Priestley Hall. In the background on the left you can see the Metceno building. And at the extreme right there is a part of Caedmon Hall.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Working on Restarting the WebCam
As I have moved office, the webcam that I had operated from there needed to shut down. However, thanks to our IT support I have gotten another PC and am setting up now the webcam at its old location. There appears to be a problem with missing DLLs; I am investigating and hope to have soon agian the cam up and running. Stay tuned1!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Webcam Shutting Down on 2.November
From Monday morning (2.November 2009), 9:00, this webcam will be temporarily shut down due to office move.
After almost 3 years in office Caedmon 101 I will have to move to another office, because this current office is needed for other purposes because of its particular design. It has not yet been determined what will happen to this webcam: it might be possible that the camera can continue to run in this office. Alternatively it would be relocated to a slightly different viewpoint. This would, however, not be my new office, because that one does not have such a nice view: my new office just faces a parking lot behind the Caedmon Building.
I will keep you updated on the fate and the future of this webcam.
But for now: thanks to everyone who has viewed this website and has enjoyed the camera view!
After almost 3 years in office Caedmon 101 I will have to move to another office, because this current office is needed for other purposes because of its particular design. It has not yet been determined what will happen to this webcam: it might be possible that the camera can continue to run in this office. Alternatively it would be relocated to a slightly different viewpoint. This would, however, not be my new office, because that one does not have such a nice view: my new office just faces a parking lot behind the Caedmon Building.
I will keep you updated on the fate and the future of this webcam.
But for now: thanks to everyone who has viewed this website and has enjoyed the camera view!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Webcam server ok again
The server has now been completely upgraded. Image delivery works fine, the images are routed again to the Leeds Met server.
Temporary URL for webcam
Due to the server problems, I have moved the live webcam to another domain. The captured image as shown above is now at http://www.reinholdbehringer.co.uk/_LiveCam/index.php
If you have any links in your web pages, linking to the original site, you might want to update the URL to this one.
If you have any links in your web pages, linking to the original site, you might want to update the URL to this one.
Server update - camera is out for a while...
On Sunday, 13.9., an upgrade of the basic server scripting components was carried out. For some reason, this affected the web cam software as well. I am investigating what the problem is.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Problems with Opera Browser on Windows Mobile
As I have just found out, the mobile webcam site that I wrote for displaying the webcam image on a mobile phone web browser does not work well on the Opera web browser (ver. 9.5, build 15445) on Windows Mobile 6.1.
With the default display setting "Mobile View" checked, the image is not shown at all. With the "Mobile View" unchecked, the image is shown, but the whole page is reduced to fit on the screen. This is independent of the setting "Automatic full screen".
The reason appears to be that Opera tells JavaScript an incorrect screen size. The screen on my mobile phone is 240 pixels wide, which is correctly reported by Mobile Internet Explorer. But Opera reports 480 pixels wide. This leads to a too large request of the image, which then is squeezed onto the narrow screen, by reducing also the rest of the web site (text from this blog). Therefore, the text becomes unreadable.
Also, in the process of the size reduction, Opera adds white space to the side of the image. hereby not only reducing it by a factor 2 from 480 to 240 pixels, but reducing it even further, although the web page is set up to show the image as 100% of the page width. Works ok in any browser on a regular PC, but Opera here does something wrong.
The mobile webcam site appears to work correctly as intended on MS Mobile Internet Explorer.
With the default display setting "Mobile View" checked, the image is not shown at all. With the "Mobile View" unchecked, the image is shown, but the whole page is reduced to fit on the screen. This is independent of the setting "Automatic full screen".
The reason appears to be that Opera tells JavaScript an incorrect screen size. The screen on my mobile phone is 240 pixels wide, which is correctly reported by Mobile Internet Explorer. But Opera reports 480 pixels wide. This leads to a too large request of the image, which then is squeezed onto the narrow screen, by reducing also the rest of the web site (text from this blog). Therefore, the text becomes unreadable.
Also, in the process of the size reduction, Opera adds white space to the side of the image. hereby not only reducing it by a factor 2 from 480 to 240 pixels, but reducing it even further, although the web page is set up to show the image as 100% of the page width. Works ok in any browser on a regular PC, but Opera here does something wrong.
The mobile webcam site appears to work correctly as intended on MS Mobile Internet Explorer.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Camera Outage
During the summer break, the camera had been running fine, until on 21.August, 7:04, the server restarted. I will have to identify why this happened. Since I was not here to restart also the capture software, the web cam website only displayed the last captured image from that morning.
It is up and running now, currently capturing at a rate of 1 picture per minute, without saving the image series.
It is up and running now, currently capturing at a rate of 1 picture per minute, without saving the image series.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Capture Outage Today
Today at 11:20 I had to re-login on the capture PC with another user account name, and therefore had to shut-down and restart the camera capture software. In the course of starting it up, I had put an incorrect FTP password in the parameters... and so the images were captured and stored in a series, but were not uploaded to the webserver. Apologies for this mishap!
This makes me consider to develop a remote control for the camera captue software. I noticed the problem already around 12:30, but was unable to fix it as I was at an out-of-office location. Such a remote control could be web-based and would allow to reconfigure the camera capture module. The next version will have such a remote control.
This makes me consider to develop a remote control for the camera captue software. I noticed the problem already around 12:30, but was unable to fix it as I was at an out-of-office location. Such a remote control could be web-based and would allow to reconfigure the camera capture module. The next version will have such a remote control.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Free Software Available
This week with its demand on the server and on the capture software was useful for beta-testing the software I wrote for the capture.
I prepared a web site for easy access of this software: http://creativetech.inn.leedsmet.ac.uk/software/.
One software is the capture software itself (which I already announced here earlier). It can be used by anyone who has a PC and wants to capture single images to be ftp-ed onto a web server.
The other piece of software is a small client which takes an image from a remote web server and places it onto the Windows desktop. It is pre-configured to use this Headingley Caedmon Webcam, but can be set to any web URL with an updated image.
--- NO WARRANTY AND SUPPORT WILL BE GIVEN ON ANY OF THESE SOFTWARE PRODUCTS - USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!---
(But if you find a bug, you are welcome to let me know so that I can fix it. Also, if you have a question, do not be intimitated to ask; if I have time, I will certainly help)
I prepared a web site for easy access of this software: http://creativetech.inn.leedsmet.ac.uk/software/.
One software is the capture software itself (which I already announced here earlier). It can be used by anyone who has a PC and wants to capture single images to be ftp-ed onto a web server.
The other piece of software is a small client which takes an image from a remote web server and places it onto the Windows desktop. It is pre-configured to use this Headingley Caedmon Webcam, but can be set to any web URL with an updated image.
--- NO WARRANTY AND SUPPORT WILL BE GIVEN ON ANY OF THESE SOFTWARE PRODUCTS - USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!---
(But if you find a bug, you are welcome to let me know so that I can fix it. Also, if you have a question, do not be intimitated to ask; if I have time, I will certainly help)
Graduation is over - Dismantling the Marquee
The graduation week is over, the students, staff, and guests have left the white Marquee, and the dismantling crews are already emptying the inside installations. The first 4 days the weather has been reasonable, with sunny spells. But today on Friday there was wind and rain.
Time-lapse capture has been done during the week, with the goal to create videos of the activities. Now, the camera has turned again to focus solely on the Acre which will appear once the Marquee has been dismantled. The camera capture rate has been set slower now, to one picture every 5 minutes, and image series will be stored to create a time-lapse video of the Marquee dismantle process and the re-claiming of the Acre.
Next year, according to informal sources, there will be no Marquee here on the Acre, so this is now the last time for a while that this sight is here.
The rain is pounding down on the empty campus, as the students with their guests have left and staff is mostly going on holiday for the next few weeks.
An academic year is over.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Update of Server Scripts
The increased demand of the image capture on our server due to the link to the Leeds Met public web site made it necessary to provide an update to the server code which would improve the "garbage collection" of temporary image files. This has now been implemented. There was a brief outage during the transition to the new version. If there appears a "not found" error, just refresh the whole page, and the image should be there again.
Webcam now on Official Leeds Met Site
The Headingley Caedmon Webcam is now included in the official web site of the Leeds Met Summer Graduation 2009, in the latest news page. The update rate has been increased to one image every 15 seconds.
Increased Framerate
To reflect the importance of the graduation event, the framerate of the web cam capture has been increased to one picture every 20 seconds. This provides a more fluent image capture.
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