Homebrew Surveillance System Part 1 of n
Recently i decided to buy an surveillance camera to setup in my room. For two reasons mainly:
- Security: Shocking but true!
- Research: I always wondered how these devices operate, how they are installed what protocols they use etc.
I ordered one but the shipment never arrived. After waiting for two months, and a battle for refund i ended up where i started. (By the way, in this instance I was too cheap to shop at a company called TMart.com. I’m glad i finally could get a refund but I’m never ever going to shop there again. I strongly recommend everyone to stay away.)
In the meantime, it occurred to me that i had 2 laptops with webcams and a external USB webcam that i plug into my desktop PC. With 3 cameras i should be able to setup a small security system. So i started searching for some software to turn my cameras into a security system. Surprisingly i found an open-source one. It’s called iSpyConnect (http://www.ispyconnect.com). Better yet it’s written in C#. It supports cool features like uploading to YouTube. But most features that require server support requires a subscription. In the free version you are allowed to upload pictures via FTP to one server. But since I have the source code I’m planning to make my own changes.
So for now i have webcams and required software. I can’t use MacBook and it’s webcam since it’s not supported but I tested it with two webcams (One facing the door and the other facing the window) When it detected motion it started recording the video. Also uploaded pictures to my FTP server on the Internet. So even if the burglar notices the system and somehow manages to delete the local copy of the video feed, there’s still good evidence safe and sound out in the cloud.
I am planning to improve the system and I will be posting more details about it as I go along.