5.0M Pixel Pear Shaped CMOS Webcam / Web Camera Green SY-850

1.A Webcam is a camera that is available on the Internet enabling people to view live images from any other location on the World Wide Web (WWW), thus the term "Webcam." While many people think of the small, low-end USB type cameras that connect to a PC when they hear the term "webcam", there are many other kinds of webcams.
2.Network cameras are higher-end camera systems that typically do not require a PC to operate. Typically based on an embedded operating system (often Linux based), these cameras contain their own web servers. Network cameras can serve images directly to users connecting to them over local area networks (LAN) or upload images to remote servers on the Internet. This technology has taken its place in industry, education and government segments and is one of the fastest growing applications of technology today. These cameras have applications on the Internet, as well as on closed network systems.

A webcam used either in conjunction with your PC or configured on your network can allow updating images to be sent to the World Wide Web. People may then connect from anywhere in the world over the Internet and watch your live video either directly from the camera, through a webcam site or the images can be uploaded to your own web site. For professional projects and construction site monitoring, EarthCam.net (www.earthcam.net) offers a complete turnkey solution with your own camera control center, as well as 24x7 camera monitoring and support.

On the low-end, the physical parts of the system include a camera, digitizing hardware and software included to capture, process, and publish the image from a PC connected camera. In a network camera, the compression, digitizing and all the software are onboard the camera itself, along with hardware for the physical network connection. More complex systems might include several to hundreds of networked cameras linked together with storage, monitoring and archival systems.