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Using Webcams as Remote Security?
The_Mama_Cass_Ostrea asks: "Does anyone have experience using a webcam and a cellphone for remote security? I am raising shellfish in a hatchery / nursery on a 51 foot pontoon boat, anchored offshore in Chesepeake Bay. Recently the boat and it's contents were damaged by vandals. Since my day job writing software won't permit me to guard the boat 24/7, I want to set up some sort of webcam / cellphone security monitoring system that would be effective day and night. And since I am doing this on a small scale, without the money for a professional security firm, an inexpensive, open source solution would be preferred. Any suggestions would be appreciated, as would the experieces of anyone who has done anything similar." Cool idea! Has anyone tried this in practice and can pass along a few hints? I was thinking about installing webcams in the home sometime this summer, but the remote security aspect never occured to me.
An anonymous submitted this related tidbit: "I want to have a couple of video cameras and a storage array to capture and store a couple of days worth of both internal and external activity. What (Linux application) software and hardware is available? How does one overlay a running-clock with the video signal? Also would be nice to be able to login via the web and look at live signals and review stored data." This is a bit more complex than setting up a few webcams, but the ideas in here are interesting enough. Would some of these things be possible with consumer grade equipment? The time overlay is a useful idea, however I don't know if many webcams support such features.
Actually, we found the lighting controller. It wasn't stolen, just misplaced...
First, I like what you're doing -- aquaculture is seriously cool. Keep it up.
Second, your problem here is not to identify the vandals after they've come and gone. Sure, you might be able to put them in jail (if you're lucky). I wouldn't count on them being able to financially reimburse you.
You don't want anything like this to happen again. The way to ensure that is to move your boat to a better marina. Find a marina with a resident harbormaster -- if he lives there, he'll make damn sure that it's secure.
Those kinds of marina slips are expensive, so maybe you can use the info on webcams that people are giving here to barter with the harbormaster -- in return for a discounted slip, you provide a remote camera system for the other tenents. Not much for security, but it makes boat people feel better if they can check on their boat whenever they want. Especially if they're a 40' Hatteras boat person...
"Beware by whom you are called sane."
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
The ironic shot of the guy about to steal the webcam out of jwz's club.
No, paranoia is irrational or excessive fear, and that is not necessarily good. You should keep the cost/risk and benefit in mind. Although paranoia might deliver nominally more secure systems, it doesn't necessarily mean you're better off. For instance, you can spend 15k securing a 10k dollar server that have NO valuable data on them. Or you could spend thousands of dollars investing in a fancy alarm system, only to have the employees fail to properly arm it.
.5 percent of the cars will be stolen each year and each car costs 20k at purchase. In other words, the company would lose roughly 500k dollars to theft each year whereas if they invested in alarm systems it would cost them 2.5 million dollars upfront. If the cars and the alarm systems only last 5 years and the companies cost of capital is 10%, then they'd actually save, in financial terms, roughly 500k dollars by NOT installing alarms. The reason for this is because it costs the company real money to sink it anywhere; that money could be invested elsewhere in the company (or simply not borrowed) and return them more money.
Or for a less obvious example, suppose you're a Fortune 500 company, well you could spend, say, 500 dollars installing alarms on each of the company's 5000 cars, let's even assume it stops all theft. If you know with a high degree of certainty that
Although this example is simplistic, it takes into consideration some of the actual concerns that are at issue for companies and people. Put simply, some money is better off invested elsewhere. Paranoia can cost you time and money.
Furthermore, I would argue that unbridled paranoia might actually result in worse security, because perspective is lost and the real threats are not properly analyzed and responded to.
"If you want to break into our place, you had better take down our net connection."
Unfortunately, despite @stake.com's front-page claims that "all old l0pht material is available on this site", not everything is.
They had a video camera pointed at their door, at what looked like a 10-15 foot distance. The picture was clear and fairly good size. I've no idea how often it refreshed. Of course, this setup assumes that all intruders will be barging in through the front castle gate.
I've considered doing the same thing in my new apartment, since I own two webcams that I can't use at work anymore.
Seems to me there are lessons to learn from JWZ's experience. One, don't use a crappy teenybopper-vidchat-designed Quickcam for this unless you can get nice sharp pictures from it. Two, go for a higher refresh rate than 30 seconds -- if it takes someone less than 30 seconds to walk from the door to the cam, its not a good idea is it? And three, try not to put it right behind the door and plainly visible.
--Keith "And four, make sure the audio is muted so they don't hear the fake 'cha-click' sound" Tyler
--
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
--
jwz has a 24/7 webcam running in his nightclub that is being reconstructed. So far people have stolen:
o The webcam
o Two amplifiers
o The controller for the emulator lights
All he managed to get was a few blurry shots of the guy that stole the webcam.
I gotta admit, if I was gonna jump on a boat in the middle of nowhere, it would be unsettling to hear a phone ring. But I'd probably just take it.
Because its been done in FreeBSD. Using the Matrox capture card. One that went out of production back in 1999 and cost $600 Using the kernel code from 1995 by Jim Lowe and Mark Tinguely. And once using a $49 card that the interlace is busted (the odd line is in the even slot, and the even is odd), as a time-lapse security camera system. (it just goes with 1/2 a page.) Given the one system is now 5 years old, and was last rebooted 500 days ago (a server move), FreeBSD is a known, working solution.
.avi for that time-lapse movie effect.
:-)
At 2 TV stations. Every minute it does a rbg24 and pipes the ppm through ImageMagick.
To add the date gfont.
Like gfont -r 640x45 "`date '+Time:%l:%M:%S%p Date:%m-%d-%Y'`"
Take that result and do the append via ImageMagick.
Make them animated gifs or a
A keyboard USB chip is the input from the security sensors, and USB switches which camera is the live feed into the capture card. (Ya have to shield it because USB and 900 mhz phones don't play nice) As a benefit, the security testing is simple keystroke simulations.
If it was said on slashdot, it MUST be true!
Add a couple of these. These have much better multi-spectrum detection and reaction.
Grab the ISO here.
Demo available at the URL in my sig...
Trust me, after this horror story, you'll all be wanting webcams for security.
Back in my university days (i.e. eight months ago), a friend and I were in the computer lab doing some work. Or something to that effect. My friend had just picked up a webcam and had it streaming to his website for a few days and decided to show me his awesome webcam/HTML hax0ring abilities.
At the time, he was living in a basement apartment. The family upstairs gave him all the privacy he needed, but on this day (and probably many others), the privacy was nil.
Upon firing up the webcam site and logining in, we see a picture of his desk and chair sitting peacefully from the glorious vantage point of a monitor-mounted webcam. A few minutes later, things took a turn for the worse.
Into my friend's room walks the landlord's 14 year old son. "He isn't supposed to be in there," my friend says, a little worried.
He sits at the computer.
"He isn't supposed to be in here," my friend repeats.
The kid types something and fiddles with the mouse.
"He isn't supp... holy fuck!" The kid had dropped his pants and started flogging the dolphin right there in front of my friend's computer, most likely to Britney Spears or some pr0n site, and in plain view of anyone who happened to be checking out the webcam.
Needless to say, the bedroom door suddenly acquired a padlock for the short time my friend remained at the place.
The webcam may not have prevented that spunkfest, but at the very least, further spunkfests were avoided. Now that's security.
(Yes, it was a Windows box. Shut up.)
J
Buy the best stuff so that when the vandals come by they can pick up some nice hardware at cheap prices.
Dancin Santa