Power over Ethernet (“PoE”) is nothing new. Usually, PoE is used to power switches and other networking devices. A company called Baumer Ltd. is using PoE to power cameras over Cat6 cable. The “TXG camera” can shoot at VGA and higher resolutions and up to 90 frames per second.
Where would you use something like this? It probably could be used in surveillance or in some kind of robot. These TXG cameras are tiny and weigh less than a quarter pound. You can get a sense of scale by looking at the Ethernet jack on the back of the device.
The camera comes with the Baumer-GAPI, which is a generic programming interface so you can use this camera in whatever project you would like. The cameras have been used in industrial environments. Unfortunately, there is no word on whether these cameras can be bought by an average hacker.
Read: [BusinessWire.com]
I bought one of these cameras for a small indoor robot I started working on this summer, and so far it works pretty well.
Good Tricks