Developer and Project Enthusiast.
Aventura Live Webcam
This article was written over a period of several dates.
I originally got the idea for this project when I was watching the Kotel cam
(The live stream of the Western Wall). Other webcams such as the times square cam furthered
my inspiration. I thought to myself, “What if I could create my own live stream of interesting scenery.”
During the month of January, my family flies to my Grandparents apartment in Aventura, FL. Their window faces
a brilliant view of the Intercostal right before Golden Beach with boats moving by. Seeing this view is one of
my most favorite things about coming to Florida. I realized that this is perfect for a scenery live cam. I could
be at home in New York watching the window from my computer counting the days till the day we leave. I also
wanted others to enjoy the beautiful scenery as the boats float by.
I quickly started thinking of ways I could create such a concept. I didn’t want to use an IP camera because it would be easy for me to share the stream with others.
I decided to use a computer and a USB webcam to operate it. I took an old laptop (Dell Inspirion 1501) from my grandparents’ house. I bought an HD Webcam (Logitech HD Pro C920)
from eBay for about $48. The computer has outdated specs for 2016 standards. It originally shipped with Windows Vista but I upgraded it to Windows 7 around 2010 or 2011.
It contains a AMD Athlon 64 X2 32-bit processor from about 2005 and has 2 Slots of RAM each 512 MB (1 GB total).
Next, I needed a way to keep the keep the Camera facing the window. I thought of using a small tripod on top of the dresser in the room.
I quickly realized that this would be impractical because if someone closes the shades or walks in front, it would block the camera view.
I then thought about using a suction cup system that would stick to the window and hold the camera in place.
I found a strong bathroom hook designed for holding towels, robes and other items
with a strong suction cup. The hook fits the web cam perfectly.
I then needed to look for the software that would host the live stream.
I looked up services for hosting live streams. EarthCam is a company that supplies custom live stream cams for scenic views.
They also allow you to host your own Camera with My Earth Cam.
It was perfect for my use because it was simple to setup and view the webcam.
It even allowed people to take pictures of the webcam and share them on the web page.
The broadcaster program runs in the web browser.
January, 2017:
I left to Florida for winter vacation. I decided that I would install TeamViewer,
a remote control computer program that allows me to connect to the computer incase the web browser crashes.
I also installed GreenBrowser, a low resource web browser on to the computer because the computer
doesn’t have a lot of RAM and has an outdated processor
The browser operates on Flash Player which by its self already uses quite a lot of RAM and processor power.
March, 2017:
Many people have viewed my webcam and shared pictures of the webcam.
I won the top 10 camera award of that month.
January, 2018. Writing this while I’m in Florida:
Captured image from Live Broadcast on EarthCam
The live webcam as of January 20, 2018 currently has 27934 views and 37 likes.