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Hardware

Dial-A-Cam 76

Posted by michael from the speed-dial-8-for-home-surveillance dept.
malloci writes "CNet has this article describing Nokia's new wireless camera. Unlike other webcams though, it is designed to communicate via a GSM network, sendings photos to the user's cell phone."
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Dial-A-Cam More

Dial-A-Cam

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  • Yet another Nokia story (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 18, 2003 @07:00PM (#5762842)
    are they paying you guys or what? [slashdot.org]

  • Dial-A-Cam Uses (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Blaine Hilton ( 626259 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @07:01PM (#5762849) Homepage
    I'm not sure where this camera would be practical. It seems the best use would be for remote monitoring, such as for weather stations or remote pipelines, but it can't be so remote so the cell phone network is not established. I believe this is walking a very fine line between a location that can not have a regular POTS line and a location that is out of range from the cellular network. The Cnet article does not say rather or not the camera also records the images. If it does not record then this seems like a pretty expensive toy.

    Now if it can be programmed to call a cell phone and send images when a sensor goes off then it becomes more interesting, because I don't think people are going to be watching these things on the phone all the time. Also, at $400 a pop if multiple cameras are needed it would be cheaper to use a PC with 4/8/16/32 port CCTV inputs and cameras that only cost around $100. The PC could still connect to a network using a cell phone device and be able to transmit data and images. It will also in all likelihood provide much more flexibility then this camera solution.

    Go calculate something! [webcalc.net]

    • Re:Dial-A-Cam Uses (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Eevee ( 535658 )

      Just because you have POTS in an area doesn't mean you want to pay to run it to the camera's location. For example, let's say you're curious what kind of birds are visiting the birdfeeder in the back of you yard while you're at work. (Trust me, there are people this weird in the world.) Slap the camera on the stand, aim at the feeder, and you're good to go.

      • However a POTS line is about $15-$25 a month and depending on how the cell phone service they sell with the camera that can be more expensive, although of course you can move it too.
    • It's also an easy way to pick up an insanely hot woman!
    • This product should be re-named "Dial-A-Porn". Charge people by the call to call it up and find out what's happening . . . oooh look I think I see a leg in that shot!
    • Well, Maybe not a POTS line...

      When I worked at Cedar Point, their security cameras worked over dry pairs of the telcom's network. Considering I can get a Dry pair (or an alarm circut) for about $8/month per leg (from my house to the Telco, from the Telco to whereever it's going).

      A POTS line isn't going to give you much in the way of bandwidth, but, a dry pair is yours...you can do what you'd like to with it...wanna use it to pipe audio from your house to your girlfriend's house? You can do it. Wanna ru
      • Those dry pairs sound very interesting. I know of many remoting monitering solutions that can save a lot of costs using this. Do you just call the telco and ask them for a "dry pair" ? I wonder if they are avaiable for everybody?
        • Yes, you can get a "dry Pair" just by calling your RBOC and asking them. If the droid on the other end of the phone doesn't know what you're talking about, ask for an 'alarm circut.'

          Hope this helps.

          Ian

  • Rebirth of the web cam (Score:4, Insightful)

    by nilepoc ( 7329 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @07:02PM (#5762850) Homepage Journal
    I can't wait for the first fishtank/coffee pot/sunrise/sunst uses. Then we can progrss to spy cams, and the X10 mobile multiuse cam.

    I am just not very excited about the loss of my privacy to a camera in every pocket society.

    I bet the patriot act will have something to say about this also.
    • I bet the patriot act will have something to say about this also. I'm sure what they will say is "RIGHT ON!" as they tap in. The BEAST will have another way of monitoring you.
    • I remember visiting a web cam site years ago in which the owner's philosophy was that problems didn't arise out of too little privacy but out of too much privacy. The idea is that the more people think they're under observation the better they'll behave, as in a quote I can't remember the source of (paraphrased):

      There's nothing better to assure proper behavior than a good upbringing, strong morals...and witnesses.

      Not that I necessarily agree with this but it's an interesting viewpoint.

  • If slashdotted... (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Here's a mirror [67.37.26.5] for this an d all of today's other ./ stories.

  • Oh great... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ekephart ( 256467 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @07:07PM (#5762868) Homepage
    Now there will be even more area codes. Seriously does EVERY camera need a phone number? Can't each organization buy a few numbers and have extensions for each camera?

    And another thing. Talk about a security flaw. Send it a blank text message and it sends you what it sees? I just found a new use for my AT-5000 Auto-Dialer!

    • North American problem only (Score:4, Interesting)

      by JoeBuck ( 7947 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @07:59PM (#5763051) Homepage

      The need for new area codes only affects countries like the US and Canada, that use fixed-length telephone numbers. Europe uses a variable-length approach that lets frequently dialed numbers be short, while numbers for devices can be as long as you want. You can hand a prefix to an organization and they can populate it with phone numbers however they want, much like DNS. You never have to change phone numbers.

  • I bet they'll try to market it to parents for keeping an eye on their kids, sort of like those day care centers with webcams.

    Hmm, I can think of at least one good use for it. Set it up pointing at your monitor, start compiling, go out for a few beers. Then call your camera every half hour or so to see if your machine's done compiling yet.

    • Maybe instead of investing in that camera, you could invest in a faster computer. :-)
      • And his excuse for getting the beers would be...?

        I was at a job compiling on my 286 took 2 hours. One day they give me the 'good' news that I'l be getting a new and spiffy 486 with 16 megs of ram!!. It took 25 minutes to compile. I saw the writing on the wall. 'programmers will use trial and error more then logic to fix programs' I see this approach a lot now. sick, truley sick.
    • Sure, that'd be great if you had no screensaver and your monitor never went to sleep.

  • I'll buy one! (Score:5, Funny)

    by qbproger ( 467459 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @07:11PM (#5762880)
    Finally, a way to prove people are stealing my pencils!
    • Finally, a way to prove people are stealing my pencils!

      Gee, don't you think that's a bit extreme? just use RFID tags like the rest of us, they're like 1 cent apiece now.

  • Who cares? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 18, 2003 @07:11PM (#5762881)
    Let's see how much crap we can cram in a cell phone. zzZZzZz..
  • Now I have proof that aliens are stealing my socks for fuel!

    Al Bundy, a great figure of our time.

  • Probably not allowed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by afidel ( 530433 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @07:20PM (#5762910)
    Most cell networks have explicit sections in their data provider agreements that forbid applications like security cameras. Trust me they have already thought of how much of a drain a bunch of cameras constantly sending pics would be on their network and made it so they can shut your service off if they find you doing something like this.
    • Most network operators would love you to have something that makes a lot of calls. You do understand that they charge money to make phone calls don't you?
    • RTFA.

      a) This has already been approved by two networks (AT&T and some other one)

      b) It does not send continuous pictures. you send it a blank message, and it responds back with the latest picture it's snapped..
      • Well here is a quote from the TOS for Verizon's data service and I have found that most of the good cellular data plans include similar exclusions (IE those that don't charge for every MB over some rediclulously low amount, wtf would I want fast data rates if I have to pay for everything over 20MB???).

        Unlimited Express Network cannot be used with server devices or with host computer applications. Examples of such prohibited uses include, without limitation, web camera posts or broadcasts, continuous jpeg

  • Lies! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Tuxinatorium ( 463682 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @07:21PM (#5762914) Homepage
    Wireless communications are impossible! The Koran tells me so! It is a fabrication of the American TV news media! I triple guarantee you there is no such thing as electromagnetic waves! Lies!
    • Iraqi Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf was my favorite person during the war.

      bang,bang, bang

      there are no american with 100 kilometers of bagdad.

      rumble rumble rumble, kablouie
      the americans have been driven away.

      whir whir whir, planes landing

      the amercans have not taken the airport..

      I mean, who is that guy kidding? if people can recieve his broadcast, then they can probably recieve CNN.

  • expected next step... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by edrugtrader ( 442064 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @07:31PM (#5762943) Homepage
    this is how you would expect the technology to evolve. anything that can be done with existing technology will be done... and through that process new necessities will arise and new features will be implemented that will be joined with all of the exisiting features.

    frank norris said something like imagination is only the combination of things not yet combined...

    you have a phone... a phone calls another phone and asks to talk to it. that phones human operator can accept and talk.

    you have picture phones where a phone operator can call another phone and offer a photo.

    why not combine them (if the operator owns both pieces) and call a camera phone: and have it automatically accept, take a picture and send it back. that is really all this is. it automatically pushes a few buttons on the camera phone.

    all it is is a scaled down camera phone with less functionality that automatically sends pictures. pretty simple to hack your own together i would think.

    now i'll have to take the x10 camera hidded in my bathroom out and put my celly in there instead.

  • Terrific! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by segfaultdot ( 462810 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @07:32PM (#5762945)
    ...webcams/netcams aren't slow, grainy and low rez enough for me!

    Seriously, it's an interesting idea, but if i really wanted such a device i'd get a WiFi camera (does such a device exist?) and a WiFi pda or slim laptop (not neccecarily at the same location). Much faster and potentially higher quality

  • only one potential use (Score:4, Funny)

    by bestguruever ( 666273 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @07:36PM (#5762960)
    I'd like to set one of these up at the local Best Buy just to find out who would actually buy one of these. Um ... I think I'll mail order mine.

  • Webcam exploits... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by miketang16 ( 585602 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @07:39PM (#5762974) Journal
    Lovely, that's something I would really love to do, broadcast a wireless signal from a webcam in my house...

    There's a reason I have a fully wired network... =)
  • camgirl: "YES! the cops finally took his damn computer. now i don't have to tell my parents about my camming so they can put a restraining order on this guy!" pervert: "wuahahahahahaha."

  • WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Shoten ( 260439 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @08:10PM (#5763082)
    This is nuts. A $400 device that needs its own cellular phone account so that you can ask it to send you a snapshot when you feel like it? What the frick is the use of THAT? For less in hardware and MUCH less in recurring cost, I can put auto-refreshing pics from a webcam (like an Axxis) on my website and just look at the bloody page from a web-enabled phone. If I really had a hard-on for something clever, I could use the same gear (with enough wireless bandwidth to my phone/pda, that is) to actually watch live video. Why in hell would I pay so much more just to have snapshots on demand?

  • Cam entrepreneurs on wheels? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Sir Network ( 183139 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @08:23PM (#5763118) Journal
    Imagine the rash of car accidents when iFriends and other adult entertainers take to the road.

    It's one thing to be on the alert for soccer moms who don't check their blind spot before changing lanes.
    It's another thing entirely to have distracted drivers watching hot lesbian amateur action in passing Camaros.

    Guess it's best for me to stay home and watch the "road report" from my PC.
    On a GSM phone, of course. :-)

  • Fake Nokia ad (Score:3, Funny)

    by utahjazz ( 177190 ) on Friday April 18, 2003 @08:31PM (#5763137)
    Fake Nokia cam-phone ad [bordergate...otocol.net]

    This is for the cam-phone, not the phone-cam, but it's damn funny, unless you like cats.

  • I hear whenever you use these camras [x10.com] pretty ladies appear. How can they compete with that?
  • idea from David Brin's "Transparent Society" [amazon.com]
    Imagine a place where this kind of cam is on top of every other streetlight, passing the information to ANYONE who wants it. Want to see if there is a mugger/billcollector/cop waiting at the corner of your street.. dial up the cam.. your kid gone missing.. dial the relevant cam.. the point is this CAN be used for surveillance by cops.. but the REAL issue is here.. when this kind of information be accessed by everyone.. when the cameras are EVERYWHERE.. the amoun
    • Imagine a place where this kind of cam is on top of every other streetlight...

      I don't have to imagine this, George Orwell already wrote about it. And it scares the hell out of me.
      • no, george orwell wrote of a place where thoughts were controlled. One way to do that was by watching the people and changing facts of events.
        However, if you allow everyone to have access to them, and you put it rules for people in the employ of the government to use if they want to use them for monitoring, we could not have an orwellian government because everyone could see the truth.

  • Could be perhaps used to check how the roads are before you try to drive to work.
  • Great! Now I can get porn spam on my cell phone too! \o/

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