EVS :: Erdman Video Systems

The Biscuit : A Hi-Resolution Web Cam and Project Documentation System

What it is... The Biscuit is a hi-resolution digital camera system used to take pictures, archive them, and upload them to the Internet. Designed for construction and environmental monitoring and documentation, the Biscuit has a number of features and characteristics not found in most other Web Cam systems such as; photo quality images, automatic creation of time lapse movies, extensive image archiving, weather station support, easy installation, one year support and much more.

How it Works... The Biscuit is controlled by an embedded Pentium computer running Windows. It does not come with a monitor or keyboard, it only has an on/off switch. We ship the Biscuit pre-configured for image acquisition and uploading to the Internet. Changes to the configuration are done over phone lines and/or over the Internet. The embedded computer runs the control software VM95. The control software has been designed over eight years to be very flexible and easy to programmed for handling both the Web Cam and image archiving needs you may have. For added reliability, we have added a microprocessor based watchdog circuit that will reboot the computer should any problems develop. In addition, the microprocessor monitors the power and UPS functions, measures temperature inside and outside the housing, and can interface with other analog sensors.

What About Monitoring Live on the Internet... The Biscuit can handle video cameras and camcorders in addition to digital cameras from several vendors. We do support streaming video to our proprietary Windows based software (VM View ) and fast ftp uploading, so Internet browsers can see updated images every few seconds, depending on the connection to the server.

General Features:

Weatherproof enclosure and camera housings.
Pole Mountable, -40º to 110º F operation.
Supports several digital cameras including Olympus models C700, C730, C4000, C4040 and C5050 plus any analog camera, with the video option.
Measures inside and outside temperatures and has additional analog inputs for other sensors.
Consumes < 25 Watts, weighs < 30 lbs.
Embedded Computer – no monitor, keyboard, or mouse, just an “On/Off” switch.
Watchdog microcontroller allows reliable, long term, unattended operation.
Serviceable and programmable over a network, direct dial up, and over the Internet.
10/100 Ethernet and integrated Modem standard.
Optional solar powered units available.
Supports standard and cellular phones for Internet uploading and remote control.

Special Features:

Automatically produce MPEG time-lapse movies and upload them to the Internet for daily and weekly progress reviews.
Plot up to 2 years of historical data from your weather archives.
Record, archive and process weather data, producing real time plots on the Internet.
Gather Images from Digital Cameras and overlay analog data with up to 8 analog channels digitized to 16 bits.
Cellular phone, pots lines, DSL and cable modems supported. Upload your data by calling up to 4 different Internet Service Providers (ISP) and send files via FTP to up to 4 different FTP sites.
Control Software runs under Windows which means updates to the software are easy to make allowing new features as they become available. Easy to configure yet flexible software can be re-programmed locally, over direct dial-up phones lines, and over the Internet. Custom applications are welcome, and the Windows platform ensures fast and effective development using the latest tools.
Store 50,000 photo quality images on a ten gigabyte drive in an easily navigated directory structure that can handle over one million images.
Image organization is intuitive and its easy to find any image in the archives over phones lines or on the internet archives.
Advanced image processing algorithms such as Averaging, Stacking, Registration, Rectification, and others available.

Turn Key Systems, What's included with a typical package:

Control Box: This outdoor enclosure houses the pentium computer, microcontroller watchdog, UPS power supply, camera power supply, and 16 bit A/D converter.
Camera Housing: High quality outdoor housing with sun shroud.
Camera: High resolution Digital and/or Analog camera.
Cable: 50 feet standard; up to 150 feet without extra hardware; up to 330 feet with cable extenders.
Mounting Hardware: Pedestal or wall mount and adjustable head mount.
Software Configuration: Windows and VM95 software installed. When you receive the system, it has been completely configured to connect to the internet and upload images to your chosen FTP site.
1 year guarantee: Reprogramming and free software updates for the first year with easy and flexible maintenance contracts available thereafter.

Standard VM95 Software Features:

Sampling Intervals: 1 minute to 24 hours, day of the week, turn on time, turn off time, up to 80 different sampling regimes per day.
Image Capture: High resolution, full color, programmable compression, contrast, brightness, sharpness, text and graphics overlay, any font, any size, any color and more.
Nighttime imaging: Up to 16 second exposures for imaging in low light with exposure determined in selectable regions (region of interest) and up 300 seconds of exposure using a new algorithm to "Stack" several long exposure images.
Image Archive: Well organized archive for images and movies. Can be mirrored onto the internet or a local network server to support multiple archives.
Davis Weather Station Support: Automatically retrieve weather data, make time series plots and upload weather data to the internet.
Internet Uploading: Dial-Up ISP, DSL, Cable or direct connect to network. Upload latest image captured. Upload created graphics. Upload created MPEG movies. Automatic thumbnail creation. Upload multiple images from a select time period with a preview page of thumbnail images, dynamically written html pages.
Ultra lower power mode: Integrated microcontroller (8051) can turn on computer, take a picture, upload it to the internet over a cell phone, and turn off until the next sample time. When set for 12 uploads per day (hourly), average power consumption is less than 3 watts.

Unique Features:

Time lapse movies of single and composite images.
Intelligent long exposures for night time imaging.
An archive system that can handle over 1 million images.
Flexible Internet uploading over both dialup and network connections with both fixed and dynamic naming capabilities.

Optional Equipment

Davis Weather Station: Measure temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity, rainfall and barometric pressure. Weather Graphs are made automatically and uploaded to the internet.
Precision Pan/Tilt Unit: 360º pan and +/- 90º tilt. Accuracy better than 0.1º. VM95 software can be easily programmed for high resolution panoramic views.
Additional Cameras: Up to 2 USB digital cameras and/or 4 analog video cameras.

Designed for ease of installation and low maintenance, the Biscuit can be set up by non technical personnel. The system is pole-mountable and by simply attaching power, a phone line, and flipping on the "On/Off" switch, the pre-configured system will start taking images and uploading them to the Internet. Remote reprogramming and maintenance is fast and efficient over direct dialup or over the Internet. Installation Examples.