6 ms·

Turning a laptop into a CCTV

74 points by Keats 12y ago

valdiorn 12y ago
I know it's really popular to use a lot of different TLDs these days, but there was a time when I saw a .is domain and could be very certain it was Icelandic (where I'm from). I don't particularly like people using TLDs randomly, especially when they have a very strong correlation with a specific location, and the person or company using the domain has zero relation to that location. (of course it's entirely your right, since you pay for it, and I have no right to tell you what you can or cannot do, but I'll still express my opinion) Anyway, the project is cool, thanks for posting!
tom_scrace 12y ago
Nice writeup!
joezydeco 12y ago
Curious why the author didn't use an existing project like Motion. http://www.lavrsen.dk/foswiki/bin/view/Motion/WebHome http://www.lavrsen.dk/foswiki/bin/view/Motion/WebHome
- teddyh 12y ago
  Yes; back in 2005/2006 I used Motion to implement a system using four cameras on a 1GHz Intel P3; it worked nicely.
- rahimnathwani 12y ago
  Can anyone comment on whether it's worth using Motion or ZoneMinder or similar today? I was thinking about using ZoneMinder for a simple 4-camera setup, but it seems like there are kits (with proprietary software) which are cheaper and easier to set up.
  - bm212 12y ago
    Setting up motion is easy enough if you have some scripting skills - a lot easier than the opencv approach in the article. There are articles online using motion with raspberry pi and a USB webcam to do the sort thing described in the article (eg http://m.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-remote-webcam/ http://m.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-remote-webcam/).
  - click170 12y ago
    I use motion at home. Interestingly, the CPU usage went from 0 to ~30% when I added the first camera, but there was no noticeable increase in CPU usage adding the other 2 cameras. I use it to record any detected motion, works a charm. It even has a feature to dynamically ignore parts of the screen. Say part of your camera's field of view catches a plant that blows in the breeze, the system will learn to ignore that area of the screen.
    - click170 12y ago
      Edit: In fact, you can use motion to record images of the motion that it detects. You can then plug those images into OpenCV for facial recognition. Both Motion and OpenCV are very powerful pieces of software and they can compliment each other nicely. Edit: ... or Reply.
- Keats 12y ago
  It actually started talking with a friend at lunch about taking pictures from python without the motion part and I decided to add the motion detection later on. It's definitely not the best thing, motion looks much better, but it was quite fun to do and only took like 1h30 (and I wanted to play with OpenCV !)
bobosha 12y ago
OpenCV has a number of motion detection and blob tracking algorithms....those can reduce false alarms significantly. Curious why the author did not use those...
tantalor 12y ago
Tough to read (honestly couldn't make it past the first paragraph) because of all the parenthetical expressions (which interrupt the train of thought) in every sentence.
- arm 12y ago
  Pretty sure it’s grammatically incorrect as well. All those parentheses should probably be removed and replaced with em dashes.
  - Keats 12y ago
    Sorry for that, I'll fix them tonight. It's quite obvious that there are too many looking at the article again
platzhirsch 12y ago
I built a Python-backend and Android front-end to set up motion on a machine, in my case Raspberry Pi, and make it controllable while you are on the go, receiving push notifications on your phone if motion is detected: http://konrad-reiche.com/security-cam/ http://konrad-reiche.com/security-cam/
aprdm 12y ago
Sorry for the offtopic but is this wordpress? If so which theme? :)
- Keats 12y ago
  It's pelican with the Hyde theme (https://github.com/poole/hyde https://github.com/poole/hyde) I ported to pelican: https://github.com/Keats/pelican-hyde https://github.com/Keats/pelican-hyde

74 points by Keats 12y ago

I know it's really popular to use a lot of different TLDs these days, but there was a time when I saw a .is domain and could be very certain it was Icelandic (where I'm from). I don't particularly like people using TLDs randomly, especially when they have a very strong correlation with a specific location, and the person or company using the domain has zero relation to that location. (of course it's entirely your right, since you pay for it, and I have no right to tell you what you can or cannot do, but I'll still express my opinion) Anyway, the project is cool, thanks for posting!

tom_scrace 12y ago

Nice writeup!

joezydeco 12y ago

Curious why the author didn't use an existing project like Motion. http://www.lavrsen.dk/foswiki/bin/view/Motion/WebHome http://www.lavrsen.dk/foswiki/bin/view/Motion/WebHome

teddyh 12y ago
Yes; back in 2005/2006 I used Motion to implement a system using four cameras on a 1GHz Intel P3; it worked nicely.
rahimnathwani 12y ago
Can anyone comment on whether it's worth using Motion or ZoneMinder or similar today? I was thinking about using ZoneMinder for a simple 4-camera setup, but it seems like there are kits (with proprietary software) which are cheaper and easier to set up.
- bm212 12y ago
  Setting up motion is easy enough if you have some scripting skills - a lot easier than the opencv approach in the article. There are articles online using motion with raspberry pi and a USB webcam to do the sort thing described in the article (eg http://m.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-remote-webcam/ http://m.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-remote-webcam/).
- click170 12y ago
  I use motion at home. Interestingly, the CPU usage went from 0 to ~30% when I added the first camera, but there was no noticeable increase in CPU usage adding the other 2 cameras. I use it to record any detected motion, works a charm. It even has a feature to dynamically ignore parts of the screen. Say part of your camera's field of view catches a plant that blows in the breeze, the system will learn to ignore that area of the screen.
  - click170 12y ago
    Edit: In fact, you can use motion to record images of the motion that it detects. You can then plug those images into OpenCV for facial recognition. Both Motion and OpenCV are very powerful pieces of software and they can compliment each other nicely. Edit: ... or Reply.
Keats 12y ago
It actually started talking with a friend at lunch about taking pictures from python without the motion part and I decided to add the motion detection later on. It's definitely not the best thing, motion looks much better, but it was quite fun to do and only took like 1h30 (and I wanted to play with OpenCV !)

bobosha 12y ago

OpenCV has a number of motion detection and blob tracking algorithms....those can reduce false alarms significantly. Curious why the author did not use those...

tantalor 12y ago

Tough to read (honestly couldn't make it past the first paragraph) because of all the parenthetical expressions (which interrupt the train of thought) in every sentence.

arm 12y ago
Pretty sure it’s grammatically incorrect as well. All those parentheses should probably be removed and replaced with em dashes.
- Keats 12y ago
  Sorry for that, I'll fix them tonight. It's quite obvious that there are too many looking at the article again

platzhirsch 12y ago

I built a Python-backend and Android front-end to set up motion on a machine, in my case Raspberry Pi, and make it controllable while you are on the go, receiving push notifications on your phone if motion is detected: http://konrad-reiche.com/security-cam/ http://konrad-reiche.com/security-cam/

aprdm 12y ago

Sorry for the offtopic but is this wordpress? If so which theme? :)

Keats 12y ago
It's pelican with the Hyde theme (https://github.com/poole/hyde https://github.com/poole/hyde) I ported to pelican: https://github.com/Keats/pelican-hyde https://github.com/Keats/pelican-hyde