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Science

Penguins Invade the North Pole 182

Posted by michael from the not-as-good-as-jennycam dept.
An Anonymous Coward writes "Thanks to a project of the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a webcam has for the first time been installed at the North Pole -- one which runs on Embedded Linux (uClinux), no less! The device was installed on April 28, 2002 and is now logging four images a day, which are available for viewing on NOAA's publicly accessible website. This article at LinuxDevices.com describes the Linux-based webcam (called the NetCam), opens up the device to see what embedded hardware and software are inside, and explains why the NetCam's developers used Embedded Linux as the basis of their design."
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Penguins Invade the North Pole More

Penguins Invade the North Pole

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  • its really "cool" in all senses of the word:):)

    however i wonder how cool the webserver of NOAA is ...... after posting to slashdot. tsk tsk.

    Vikram

    • however i wonder how cool the webserver of NOAA is ...... after posting to slashdot. tsk tsk

      It's all part of there briliant sceme to get free heating of the researchers :)

  • This must be pointed away from Santa's workshop (Score:5, Funny)

    by Esgaroth ( 515377 ) on Saturday May 04, 2002 @03:35PM (#3463451) Homepage
    ... Cause I don't see anything that looks like elves.

  • tundra (Score:2, Funny)

    by zephc ( 225327 )
    remember, tundra is the eskimo word for 'nothing' (dave barry joke)
  • Penguins at the North Pole! It's about time we counteracted the mass of all those penguins sitting in Antarctica, screwing up our moment of inertia!

    Jouster

    • Re:Finally! (Score:2, Informative)

      by rmohr02 ( 208447 )
      Well, it wouldn't have screwed up our moment of inertia because moment of inertia only depends on the shape of the object, the mass of the object, and the distance from the axis of rotation (pretty much 0 in this case) (or I=?*m*r^2). Since the distance from the axis of rotation wouldn't have changed, the moment of inertia wouldn't have changed.

      Unless you mean in relation to the sun. We are at a 22.5 degree angle (or something like that), and that would mess up our moment of inertia just slightly--at some points penguins would be slightly closer to the sun and at some points farther away, with no counteractin penguins on the other pole to counteract them. Thank goodness we finally fixed this.

  • A use for Iridium (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 04, 2002 @03:40PM (#3463466)
    Did anyone else notice that at the bottom of the web page it says "the images are transmitted using the Iridium network"?

    Neat.
  • This is the most exciting webcam since the coffee machine [cam.ac.uk] one
  • Bite-sized snack food for polar bears!

    Phear the day someone introduces a mated pair of polar bears to the south pole.

  • Time zone? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ark42 ( 522144 ) <slashdot@[ ]pheu ... t ['mor' in gap]> on Saturday May 04, 2002 @03:43PM (#3463473) Homepage
    What time zone is the north poll in? All of them? None of them? I see the pics say GMT...
    • I think if you're talking absolute center of the north pole, than the answer would be none. Once you leave abolute center, assuming you're still in the center (i.e. somewhat equally dispersed over the center) you would be in all time-zones; of course the first is (for all intents and purposes) impossible, so you'd be in all of them.

      At least that's my take on it.
    • Strange, the use of GMT and Fahrenheit in a what looks like scientific project.

      In this 21st. century you'd expect UTC for time and either Kelvin or at least Celsius for temperature.

  • I apologize in advance for this one... (Score:5, Funny)

    by realgone ( 147744 ) on Saturday May 04, 2002 @03:45PM (#3463479)
    Wow, Linux really has had a polarizing effect on the computer world.
  • Penguins are no match for a Boa.
  • Hopefully all their studies work out and they determine that the north pole is livable. Then I finally might be able to boot my damn AMD box without turning my room into hell.
  • The NetCam's embedded computer is based on a Motorola Coldfire microprocessor running at a 54 MHz clock rate...

    A great (and probably the only) opportunity to run a fanless Athlon and they select a puny Motorola. Duh!

  • Four pictures a day? Jeni-cam shelled more pics in 1997 than these guys.

    Besides, all the pictures are from the same place and angle, that is boring.
    I suggest they ditch the pinguin and come up with a mobile cam, mounted on a
    remote controlled mouse.

    Better yet, mice, and GPL the SDK for the controller, and doom3 will not
    sell a copy ;-D

    --
    • Then we can finally watch the mice while they rebuild the earth from the top down :)

    • Re:say what? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by delta407 ( 518868 )
      It only produces 4 pictures per day because it's run off of solar power; they're being smart and conserving electricity. Besides, it has to upload the pictures over a 2400-baud modem through a satellite uplink, which is bound to take up more juice than the CCD and JPEG compression combined.

      Overall, I'd say they're being pretty smart -- you're not going to run streaming video through 802.11b running on a nine volt battery at the north pole.
      • What about the 1/2 year that there isn't any light? Even though the images would also be dark, I want to see the stars above the horizon!!
        • I find it interesting that there are only two days a year when the sun isn't above or below the horizon for the whole day at the north pole.

          Go here [navy.mil] to see for yourself (input a latitude of 90-00 North into Form B).
  • Where is the power coming from? I read the article, and it is not explained where does this device get it's power. I imagine that should be quite a challenge by itself, since
    a) at those low temperatures batteries do not work at all.
    b) 6 months in a row each year it's dark, so solar panels are not a viable source of energy.

    What, then? Quite an engineering problem, huh?

  • temps (Score:3, Insightful)

    by drDugan ( 219551 ) on Saturday May 04, 2002 @03:58PM (#3463512) Homepage
    It's great the images have the temperatures on them

    on THIS ONE [noaa.gov] the temp got up to a blistering
    20.5 F -- but most are around 8-15 degrees.

    I wonder how long the hardware will last in extremes like that.

    A year? two?

    • > the temp got up to a blistering 20.5 F. I wonder how long the hardware will last in extremes like that.

      I've been living in Wisconsin for 23 years. It can get that cold or colder from around December through March - 4 months for argument. 23*4/12 = 7.6 years that I have been exposed to that kind of cold. I figure if I can do it, so can the equipment. :)

      Seriously though, I'm sure it will need maintenance at least once a year assuming it isn't disturbed by anything more than weather.
    • ...but most are around 8-15 degrees.

      I wonder how long the hardware will last in extremes like that.

      Are you joking? The "extremes" that hardware has to deal with are in the -80C (-112F) range.

      A typical webcam has no moving parts to be affected by the cold. If you can keep a radio transmitter running, you can keep the camera going.

  • Doubt whether the North Pole is quite as big as the Chinese market, but hey!
  • they should strap cameras on the backs of
    penguins with wireless remote connections.

    Give them a combination of solar power and a
    little propeller that spins when the penguin
    swims to generate electricity. It would
    have to be waterproof, but you could get
    lots of different pics from real penguin
    colonies....

  • Santa's going to be mad... (Score:5, Funny)

    by QuantumFTL ( 197300 ) on Saturday May 04, 2002 @04:06PM (#3463538)
    I think we're about to slashdot the north pole for the first time in history!

    Hope it doesn't make the ozone hole bigger...
  • Am I the only one who thought that penguins actually did start migrating to the North Pole?(Due to global warming?) Had me worried for a while there...
    • Same here. I saw the headline, and thought: Wow!

      Does that mean that we're not REAL nerds?!?!?
    • Am I the only one who thought that penguins actually did start migrating to the North Pole?(Due to global warming?) Had me worried for a while there...

      They have already made it to the equator. However, I somehow doubt that the Galapagos penguins feel an urge to colonize the North pole.

  • Did StarDot Ever Make the Source Available? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Wasn't there a Slashdot article about StarDot not making their GPL embedded webcam source available about a year ago?
  • This could be one of those times where overheating isn't such a bad thing...
  • confluence.org [confluence.org] really ought to link to this webcam on their north pole page [confluence.org].

    Who knows, maybe it will engourage people who own land on other confluences to put web cams there.

    - Sam

  • Yeah, I'm a geek.
    Is this the geographic or the magnetic north
    pole we're talking about?
  • First he tries to destroy Gotham City, and now he's going after Santa? What is that wacky Penguin guy up for next? Suing Linus for the rights on his logo?
  • The Axis 2400 [axis.com] video server also uses embedded Linux, not sure which flavor.

    We have an older 2400 and when I recently upgraded the firmware they had switch from whatever they were using to Linux. I was impressed. In addition to adding a number of new features, including a doubling of the frame rate, I got a command line on the server!

    The server is used to post images on a weather site here [navy.mil]

  • Well I know it points south. Um, which direction is it pointing anyways, by some more useful reference I wonder?

    • If you read the article, the camera is pointing north. The camera is not actually located at the pole, but a few miles south of it on a drifting ice floe. Therefore, the camera is pointing towards the north pole, which should be somewhere in view between the equipment visible and the ridge at the horizon. That ridge marks the north end of the floe.

  • So now polar bears face their toughest competitors...
  • Well, they would have used Embedded XP, but there was no browser. :)
  • I keep expecting to see desperate, lost explorers begging and messaging for help in front of the camera.
  • How great! It's the same damned picture...every time.
  • Not trying to troll here... I really do mean this...

    But isn't this like... a really boring use of technology? I looked at a few of the photos... they all look exactly the same except time of day...

    I could understand maybe using a motion detector to catch some sort of activity but uh...

    But eh... *confused look*...

    Maybe I am just not understanding the significance of this?

    Maybe there are some photos that have something of interest in them, anyone care to post links? Personally I don't really care to go through a bunch of similar photos looking for that one unique one *smiles*

    It is pretty out there though... :)
    • Well suppose theres a scandinavian northpole expedition that dies under suspicious circumstances.

      Suppose they were killed by an allien that can enter the bodies of others.

      Now suppose that allien has entered the body of a dog and is trying to attack an american station.

      Now the scandinavians will try to kill the dog with a helicopter but that can be pretty tricky.

      But if someone was watching the webcam, they would see the whole thing happen and alert the americans.
  • I couldn't see either superman's home or santa clauses home in any of the photos!
  • When I read the title, I think NOAA is going to release penguins to North Pole again. I was a little bit disappeared, it is penguin the sofware, rather than the bird...

    IIRC, there was an attempt to release penguins to Sweden (or may be another Scandinavian countries) just before WW2. About 40 birds were released to somewhere near an arctic fishing village. All of them were killed within 60 days: penguins did not know polar bear would attack, fisherman did not know what it was...

    The fate of the last bird was like this: A fisherman's wife hacked the last penguin to death ,then taken the bird to a pub and said something like "What's wrong with that fat, stupid bird? It can't fly!!"

    From "Penguins", John A. Love ;London : Whittet, 1994.
  • It always seems to point south. Bah!

    ;-)
  • Hu ... everybody knows that Penguins only live at the south pole(and in the arctic streams comming from there) ... so I click as fast as possible on that miracle link that they now inhabit the north pole also just to realize that the Linux Penguin is ment .... does the posters have no clue?

    Linux invades north pole would have been a much cooler headline.

    BTW: The physics research center at University of Strasbourg, France (in case you are ignnorant), has linux boxes running Debian 1.x or Slackware 0.93 since about 9 years in the automatic weather reporting stations planted everywhre in the arctic and antarctic ice deserts.

    So that NEWS is a pretty old storry.

    Regards,
    angel'o'sphere
    • I read the headline and thought about the same thing. "Penguins invade North Pole hmmm.. Well I'll be damned, those wacky scientists"

      Come to find out they meant Linux. I think for real penguins living in at the North Pole would be cooler.
  • from the not-as-good-as-jennycam dept.

    I believe you were referring to Jennicam [jennicam.org] and not a porn site, right?

    right?

    :-P
  • "Man", I thought, "this is gonna be cool!"

    So, I hurried and clicked on the link...
    ...and all I saw was snow.

    Oh well.
  • There is a study that is monitoring the north pole, yet all you can think about is your stupid linux? Get a life... linux isn't as great as you all make it out to be...
  • A couple things..

    The USians are invading Canada! Surely this is simply a ploy by the military-industrial complex to use the "NOAA" (an organization known for its close ties to the Bush administration!) as a front for surveilance of soverign Canadian territory!

    How to they make sure the camera remains at the north pole? It's just sitting on an ice flow in the Arctic Ocean, a flow which moves with the currents...

    Anyway, great idea. The world needs more webcams in remote areas... Soon we'll replace 'Global Village' with 'Global Desktop' (yes, Katz, you'll have to get my perission to use that phrase).

  • Ice Cap.... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by 11390036 ( 158863 )
    The land mass located at the geographic north pole moves between 5 and 10 miles per day... Do they have someone that will be moving the webcam to account for the ice cap drift??? What about during the summer when the ice becomes dangerous that walking on it is a hazard????

    Good idea, but hard work!

  • Only 4 images a day? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Let's see...
    4 images a *day*... that makes 1 image every 6 weeks, right?

    T'would be cheaper to send a photographer for that.

    Geez.
  • http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/npole/images/noaa-2002-04 16-1632.jpg

    That seems to be one of the very first pictures that the webcam took... It was probably when they tested it someplace else, before it found its way to the North Pole.

    Particularily interesting is the below picture, which shows a temperature of over 120 degrees F!!! WTF is that at, Arizona?

    http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/npole/images/noaa-2002- 04 11-0149.jpg

  • Wow! Looking at those pictures sure makes me glad I live in Florida!
  • They say they are goign to gie us different pictures. Yeah right, the whole thing is a hoax. Some guy took one picture and is gonna leave it on the website the whole time. No need to change it, everythign look the same in the artic anyway!
  • Why don't polar bears eat penguins?
    - Polar bears don't come from next door, they come from the antarctic.
    - They can't get the tins open

    and a brand new option...

    They can't get through the shell.

    Boom boom!
  • I thought that even in the US, the scientific establishment uses either Kelvin or Celsius, so why do I see Farenheit in the bottom right?
  • Reading the headline I thought they were populating the north pole with real penguins (animals). Luckily, it seems I'm not such a Linux geek after all.
  • Pokey The Penguin [yellow5.com] already lives in the Arctic Circle with his delicious Arctic Circle Candy. Tux is an Italian.
  • What happens when the penguins poop on the solar panel?
  • What a feat for mankind.

    On that topic. Can anyone actually give reasons why uClinux is better than other embedded systems? OTHER than "It's free man!" because we all know that already.

  • They've been there for years, didnt you ever read the book "Mr Popper's Penguins" when you were kids :-P

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