Demonstrate, robotic webcam protests
If you've ever been in town for a Berkeley protest then you know they're one part Che-t-shirt-wearing freshman, one part scraggly middle-aged 60's-era throwback and one part People's Park drifter (where's the free food?). So lucky for us all, we can now watch the ugly planned mayhem of the Sproul protests over a new robotic webcam, which has been installed under a project called Demonstrate made by Berkeley's engineering school. Users can sign into the project's site, control the webcam through point-n-click, take still pictures and write comments for their own and other user's pics. About 20 users can control the cam at a time and the site uses an algorithm to share all of the user's requests and determine the ultimate lens focus. For example if you're a user who has taken more pictures and commented on more images, then you're control over the cam carries more weight than a first time user. Starting noon today (just in time for the 40th anniversary of Berkeley's claim-to-fame free speech movement) the engineering school will be displaying and lecturing about their webcam. Though we really don't want to see the sad "you should have been there, man" old hippies or the "Mean People Suck" students, we might check it out just in case someone gets arrested.
