What's the Best Way to Record, Compress and Transmit Video From Antarctica? [Video]
Our friend Ben Saunders is a polar explorer who frequently travels across Antarctica in the name of science. Part of his expedition responsibilities include sending video from the field back to the home base via satellite phone. Unfortunately, the Iridium radio frequencies only allow for a data transfer of 2.4 kb/s, which means that a 1 minute video will take at least an hour to upload. And that's at a quality level most of us would consider horrendous. And now Ben is asking for your help in finding a better solution. Ben's current setup for video capture involves the following: HP iPAQ hx2490: Yes, it runs Windows CE. Yes, it transfers wireless data at dial-up speeds. Yes, it can withstand temperatures as low as -50 degrees Fahrenheit.Motorola Iridium 9505 satellite Phone: It more or less looks like that candy bar phone you had in 1998. But you know, gets a signal in the middle of nowhere.Socket Serial I/O CompactFlash to Serial RS-232 cable: Using a Compact Flash slot, this ...