How
Webcams Work
A simple webcam consists of a digital camera attached to your computer through a USB port. Software then connects to the camera and grabs a frame from it periodically.
For example, the software might grab a still image from the camera once every 20 or 30 seconds. The software then turns that image into a normal JPG file and uploads it to your Web server. This JPG image can now be placed on any Web page. (continued below...)
Even without a Web server, several companies now offer free places to upload your images, saving you the trouble of having to set up and maintain a Web server or a hosted Web site.
Putting a standard JPG image into a standard Web page is straightforward, but it has the disadvantage that your readers must manually refresh the image. Using a meta tag, a JavaScript function or a Java applet, it is possible to create a system that automatically refreshes the image for your readers.
