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Each day-care center leases or buys the necessary equipment (including Axis Communications' AXIS 200 Web Camera and KinderCam system software) and incorporates the cost into the day-care fee--about a 3 percent increase if the equipment is not already installed, according to Jim Brown, ParentNet's vice president of engineering, research and development. Firewalls and access controls prevent unwanted viewers from penetrating the system. The KinderCam application collects the logins and validates the identity of those trying to monitor children.

The KinderCam system gathers images captured by the AXIS 200 Web Camera and customizes these views showing only what the parent needs to see, according to Brown. The images move from the Web camera to the KinderCam collection server across the Internet to ParentNet's Web site.

ParentNet employees use a cus tomized SQL database to maintain information on each child's location schedule in his/her particular day-care facility. Brown reports that centers update these schedules daily so that parents do not panic when they cannot find their child in a room in which they had previously been assigned.

Brown finds his greatest network challenge is compressing the images to best utilize the available bandwidth to the Internet service providers (ISPs) and ensuring the accessibility of that service by dealing with numerous providers.

The network, which reaches five Georgia day-care centers and more than 750 users, may soon include real-time, full-motion video--if ParentNet can build up enough bandwidth and capital. Brown plans to investigate more cost-effective methods of capturing images and sending them over the network, such as frame relay and fixed-location wireless service (presently offered by AT&T). ParentNet also will offer more resources at its Web site by October 1997 to provide additional assistance to working parents, according to Brown.

This system isn't just for concerned parents. Grandparents who may live far away and only have a chance to visit once or twice a year now can see their little loved ones daily by becoming part of the KinderCam network. Watching their grandchildren on a computer screen may not be as good as the real thing, but it will definitely serve its purpose until the next much-awaited visit.