Specialty Cameras

Security And Surveillance Cameras

A security camera is designed to observe unobtrusively. It’s meant to be hidden out of sight, disguised as a natural part of the environment or made so familiar that people don’t even acknowledge its presence. The first method is done by placing the camera up high, above the heads of the area it’s observing. This has a threefold benefit, as doing so allows it a better, unobstructed view of the area, takes advantage of the fact that people rarely look above their own eye-level, and, if the camera is placed sufficiently high, is often not recognized as a camera. The second method is accomplished by making the camera very small. Current camera technologies allow them to be miniaturized enough to fit inside a smoke detector, on the front of a baseball cap, or, in their most common application, in a cell phone. A camera small enough can either blend in with an electronic device or covered up by a thin layer of fabric that it can focus past.

These cameras carry no film, and commonly broadcast their captured images to a nearby receiver. They’re most commonly used in candid-camera style TV shows. Finally, making cameras less obtrusive is more of a social construct than anything. Security cameras are expected in high security areas like banks and museums, and high traffic areas like airports and malls as they simply become part of the landscape. And when they aren’t expected, or would interfere, such as in a school, they’re simply covered up by a black dome that acts as a one-way mirror, becoming some kind of ceiling decoration.

Web Cameras

Web cameras or webcams are cameras that create and transmit a real-time image over the internet. They work on the same principal as a security camera or videophone, not directly recording images but simply transmitting them to other computers. While originally developed for videoconferencing, the technology has seen the most prominent use by individual users creating either video diaries or amateur pornography, the latter of which has spurred on most of the technology’s development, for the desire to create a clearer, sharper picture. Still, the technology is also very commonly used for its original, video communication purposes, as well as to create an inexpensive security system and in certain types of video games that use the real image of a player, such as the PlayStation 2 EyeToy and the Xbox Live Vision Camera.