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<< Click to display table of contents >> RVMedia: About IP cameras and USB cameras |
A USB camera is connected to a computer using a USB cable. Not the camera itself, but the computer can broadcast a video from this camera to other computers. A USB webcam cannot work if not connected to a computer. Additional functions depend on the software developed by the manufacturer.
An Internet protocol camera, or IP camera, can send and receive data via a computer network and the Internet. An IP camera has a microprocessor and a network interface (Ethernet and/or WiFi), so it is ready to be connected to a network. IP cameras include a web server, they can be connected directly to LAN/WAN/Internet, they often include motion detectors, can send e-mails, can use external sensors, etc.
•If a software created by the original camera manufacturer is used, the camera features are limited with the functions of this software (such as switching to the camera when a motion is detected, face recognition, focusing on the most important part of the view, etc.).
•Applications developed by different manufacturers are not compatible. IP cameras by different manufactures have different programming interface.
•It's hard to use different cameras in a network, because a detection and an administration of each camera require different software.
•Software developers waste their time implementing a support of different cameras instead of focusing on the main functions (video processing, pattern recognition, usability). As a result, applications become more expensive.
There are standard interfaces for capturing video from USB webcams. However, if you need to implement a kind of a video conference software, you have to write a code for sending and receiving video streams through a network.
All these problems are solved by our components.