Not able to come to the FSM@40 Events? Or just want to
see what's going on "on the Plaza"?
Check out
the brand new Sproul Plaza Webcam online.
You'll need to register and receive a password by email.
UC Berkeley Press Release
Sproul Plaza webcam adds new dimension to free
speech
By Sarah
Yang, Media Relations | 28 September 2004
BERKELEY - An engineering professor and his students
are offering Web
users a new state-of-the-art robotic webcam that is stirring interest
at the intersection of technology, politics, media and history.
The new webcam is being unveiled at Sproul Plaza, the
heart of
activity on the University of California, Berkeley campus as the
University prepares to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Free
Speech Movement.
"Sproul Plaza is inherently a stage, and by putting
the webcam here
it opens that stage up to the world," said Ken Goldberg, the UC
Berkeley professor of industrial engineering and computer science who
is heading the project called "Demonstrate."
The web interface for the Demonstrate project allows
users to share
control of the robotic camera overlooking Sproul Plaza.
The project's title is a play both on the activism
that frequently
occurs on Sproul Plaza as well as on the researchers' desire to make
public the latest advances in camera technology.
Visitors to the Web site are able to remotely control
a robotic
camera to view high resolution live images from Sather Gate to
Telegraph Avenue. Users of the camera may take photos, post them on
the "Demonstrate" Web site, and add comments.
The project employs algorithms Goldberg and his
research team have
developed so that the camera can accommodate up to 20 users at the
same time. For example, if there is one person using the camera, it
will follow that person's input. But when there are several users,
the camera will reconcile everyone's commands and arrive at a
collectively determined view.
The "Demonstrate" project is being featured on Artport,
the online
portal to Internet art at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New
York. "Philosophically, this project explores the concept of a public
university in terms of being open, rigorous and aware of public
issues," said Goldberg. It is also generating a dialogue on privacy
issues prompted by new camera capabilities and by the proliferation
of cell phone cameras and video security cameras.
To foster this public discussion, Goldberg has invited
award-winning
author David Brin to speak on campus on Friday, Oct. 1, from
1:30-2:30 p.m. Brin wrote the book, "The Transparent Society: Will
Technology Force Us to Choose Between Freedom and Privacy?"
Brin's lecture, "A World Filled with Cameras: Security
at the Cost of
Freedom? Or Can We Have Both?" will be held in the Lipman Room at
Barrows Hall. It is free and open to the public.
Webcam users thus far have captured a variety of
scenes, from
snapshots of students on the plaza to imaginative nighttime displays
of Telegraph Avenue.
Goldberg and his students will be on Sproul Plaza each
day from 12-2
p.m., Oct. 4-8, to introduce and explain the new webcam. While they
are on Sproul, they will demonstrate the ultra high-resolution views
possible with the webcam by increasing the camera's zoom capability.
Users of the webcam will also be able to check out
a number of
scheduled events planned in early October to honor the 40th
anniversary of the Free Speech Movement, including a noontime
celebration on Friday, Oct. 8.
To use the Sproul webcam, go to
http://demonstrate.berkeley.edu