Hans Muller's Blog

January 2005 Archives

Squaw Valley Uber Cam

Over the holidays was talking with a friend about the probability of getting up to Lake Tahoe (starting from Silicon Valley) for a nice day of skiing. It's a four or five hour drive when the weather is accommodating however in bad weather the trip can be a bit of an ordeal. Once you've arrived, if you're a middling skier like yours truly, cold snowy windy conditions aren't quite as much fun as barreling down a warm slushy hill in a light sweater. My friend had been thinking about making the trip, and for an up to the second real-time look at weather conditions, he recommended Squaw Valley's "Uber Cam": http://www.squaw.com/winter/squawubercam.html

It turns out that the Uber Cam is an applet that (over a broadband internet connection) provides a moderately real-time view of the resort. What's interesting about the web cam is that you can control the pan/tilt/zoom for the auto-focus camera and there's logic for sharing control with other people. It's pretty effective.

Here's a screenshot of the applet in action. Below the live image, there's a simple diagram that helps you understand which way the camera is pointed. The blue rectangle represents the camera frame within the potential field of view.

The web camera system comes from Dotworkz Systems and data is delivered over a 256K/second link. The Dotworkz folks seemed to have aimed at the security business however they've been picked up by enterprises with less stressful missions, like this "surf cam" for Ocean Beach in San Diego: http://www.sundiego.com/flashset_obcam.htm .

As for me, I watched a Squaw Valley worker trudge through a swirling blizzard as he pushed a snow blower across the ski lodge patio. Then I zoomed in on a group of people hustling down the patio steps towards the slopes. They did look pretty happy to be out there even though they appeared to be not so much walking as swimming toward the chair lifts. Clearly these people were much braver than I am.

I'll go skiing next week. When it stops snowing.

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