Screensaver displays security cam images

Posted by Mark Frauenfelder, November 5, 2007 12:18 PM | permalink

SurveillanceSaver is an OS X screen saver that shows about 400 live security camera videos from public accessible Axis network cameras. It shows surprising scenes from underwater pool cameras, cows in milking machines, to shopping malls and street cameras.

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Discussion

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#1 posted by Flying Squid

, November 5, 2007 12:46 PM

It is a neat idea, but hurt by Apple's brilliant displays which make a low-res image like one from a web security camera not look all that great.

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#2 posted by WakA , November 5, 2007 12:58 PM

hah, beautiful! Inset image is the view from the the entrance of the central public library of Groningen, The Netherlands :) Go figure :P

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#3 posted by Zaren , November 5, 2007 1:00 PM

Looks like someone elese posted about the site as well, as it's not currently responding.

(Is there a documented "boing boing effect"? I've never seen a site linked from here go to pift before.)

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#4 posted by nothingistrue

, November 5, 2007 1:05 PM

anyone with a mirror of the download? sounds awesome.

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#5 posted by Dave Parker , November 5, 2007 1:21 PM

I wonder if it has a list for links or uses google.

You can find open web cams using google. http://www.google.com/search?q=inurl:%22view/index.shtml%22

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#6 posted by michael05

, November 5, 2007 1:54 PM

here is a mirror. sorry. i don't know whats up with the server..

http://i.document.m05.de.nyud.net/?p=418

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#7 posted by michael05

, November 5, 2007 1:58 PM

sorry for the delay.. but make: posted it, too. now the cache works and the site should load faster.

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#8 posted by michael05

, November 5, 2007 2:03 PM

http://i.document.m05.de.nyud.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/surveillancesaver_alpha_0.zip

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#9 posted by nothingistrue

, November 5, 2007 2:16 PM

thanks, downloaded and working... I love it! thanks michael, it's a beautiful piece of work. look forward to future development (possibly with subtitled location data?)

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#10 posted by Robert , November 5, 2007 2:24 PM

Heck with the security images... that's an interesting-looking IDE!

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#11 posted by fcummins , November 5, 2007 2:25 PM

Software as art. It's absolutely lovely!

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#12 posted by Bonnie

, November 5, 2007 5:07 PM

so has anyone here seen themselves on the security cam screensaver yet? :-p

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#13 posted by soulbarn , November 5, 2007 6:25 PM

Not to bring the conversation down to a practical level, but if you're wondering how to make it work, extract the ZIP; you'll get a qtz file. Drag that into ~/library/screensavers, then activate it in system prefs.

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#14 posted by DemiGuru , November 5, 2007 7:00 PM

After a few very long minutes of staring at those surveillance camera images. I have to admit that I find this to be addictive. Very much like a gambling addict hoping that the next hand will be the winning one. Who knows maybe the next image might be a "candid" one.
Back to staring at those images.

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#15 posted by nothingistrue

, November 5, 2007 7:18 PM

I find the recordings of scanner (robin rimbaud) to be particularly apropos in the background while this is active on your screen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Rimbaud

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#16 posted by alek

, November 5, 2007 10:32 PM

While it isn't an AXIS Webcam, this one is probably the best for sheer excitement! ;-)

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#17 posted by red_tom , November 6, 2007 3:13 AM

Scanner was our neighbour in Bethnal Green for a few years. Lovely guy, although we did wonder if our conversations were going to end up on his next album.

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#18 posted by Simon Greenwood

, November 6, 2007 4:18 AM

Neal Stephenson wrote about something like this in a Wired special back when all this was fields. The addition was that while you watched cameras from around the world, if you saw something suspicious, you could alert someone to do something about it. While you were asleep, other people were watching cameras near you and would do the same. He's not pursuing the idea now, but there's no reason that someone shouldn't.

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#19 posted by husayndas , November 6, 2007 11:53 AM

this is awesome. it's my new screen saver.

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#20 posted by Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

, November 6, 2007 1:09 PM

Alek, that's a good alternative, what with the Iowa Corn Cam being currently offline.

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#21 posted by abfo , November 6, 2007 1:37 PM

For PC users, check out Catfood
WebCamSaver. The same page also has Google Gadget and Vista Sidebar versions.

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#22 posted by deusdiabolus