Wireless Camera for Baby Monitoring?

cwinterb asks: "A friend of mine and his wife are expecting their first born. My friend is a commercial airline pilot flying all over Europe and frequently spends two or three nights away from home. He already has ADSL (256Kbps up/512 down) and 802.11b in the house, via a Draytek Vigor 2600We (draytek.co.uk). What he wants is a wireless webcam, with a built in server, so that as long as he can get web access he can see his wife and child. Streaming video would be nice but bandwidth and cost rule it out. A good quality static image that updates a few times a minute would be ideal. Audio is not required. A camera that works well in fairly low light conditions would also be a bonus."

"Privacy is obviously important. The camera should not have to be on all the time, his wife should just be able to switch it on and point, maybe with the camera on a mini-tripod. Username/password protected access to the server would be good, but SSL is overkill. One option is to use the VPN facility on the router. He already has a domain registered so we ought to be able to sort out access via an easy to remember URL and a dynamic DNS service (static IPs cost extra on most UK residential ADSL services).

What cost effective, secure and simple solutions have other Slashdot readers deployed?"

Comments

Privacy? who needs it?

[zcat_NZ]

I had 6 webcams around my house for almost two years. Then my computer died and it took me a while to sort it all out, but I'm back. You can view my mailbox and loungeroom on a 15 minute refresh any time you like.

You know what's surprising? I listed all these cameras on various web directories and they rank #1 on several google searches, but I still don't get all that many hits. I've got one regular viewer, and a few people a day drop by but mostly nobody gives a shit.

You're never as interesting as you think you are..

Re:Privacy? who needs it?

[zcat_NZ]

Oh yeah.. in reply to your question!

I'm using a cheap PAL camera, bt878 capture card, and motion software, plus a cron job to copy the fixed picture to the web server. I used to use a java applet at the client end, but I haven't really got around to setting that up again yet.

At one point I also restricted access using .htaccess and .htpasswd, which is trivial to set up and probably all you need.

The cool thing about motion is that it detects when there's changes in the picture, and can record full-motion mpeg clips whenever something happens. It can also beep, page you, email you, or anything else you care to put in a script, so it'd make a pretty good baby-monitor.

I don't know about wireless.. the same setup would work with one of those 2.4GHz X10 cameras I guess, but be aware that the signal is unencoded and travels for miles, so your pervy neighbours might have access to the full video and sound..

Re:Three points

[bobthemonkey13]

802.11b receivers can monitor them

It's my impression that, while 802.11b and X10 cameras use the same 2.4 GHz spread-spectrum technology (as do many other devices like cordless phones), they don't have anything in common at higher levels -- it's not like X10 cameras implement the Ethernet spec or anything (are they even digital?). The Slashdot article I remember about "warwatching" mentioned an apparatus made from an X10 reciever module and a small LCD TV -- no 802.11b equipment or computer involved at all. If there are devices that are capable of monitoring both 802.11b and X10 transmissions (and getting interesting data from them), please post links -- I'd be interested in such a thing.

As for encrypting an X10 camera, it seems really unlikely that it would be worth the effort and expense. It would probably be much more efficient to get a plain old webcam and attach it to an old machine with a WiFi card. Then, you have the flexability to use whatever encryption/security you want. You could also perhaps buy an (expensive) network-attached webcam like the Axis webcams and plug it into a wired Ethernet to wireless adapter with WEP, or find a webcam that has 802.11b built in. If you are going to rely on WEP for security, however, please be aware of its *ahem* less-than-stellar record.

Re:A few remarks

[UncleRoger]

Okay, so maybe you're rich and can afford to simply laze about while your child is pampered by the servants...

For those of us in the real world, naptime can be an opportunity to get some work done. As can early mornings or late nights when the kid's asleep. Unfortunately, at least in my case, I can't hear the kid downstairs when working in my attic office. So I have a standard audio monitor. When I hear the kid waking up, I zip downstairs. (Two and a half flights of stairs takes only a few seconds.) I would love to supplement the audio with video over the network.

So, I don't have the luxury of being able to sit next to my kid 24/7. Perhaps my work during naptime will get me there someday though. Until then, I too am looking for a camera.

As for my wife, she works too, and certainly doesn't want me hanging out in her classroom all day. Her home office is three stairs from mine, so if we're both working at home, sitting with the servers is near enough, yet out of her hair. Again, I would love to have your life where the three of you spend every hour of every day together, walking white sand beaches hand-in-hand... but I live in the real world. Sucks to be me.

Actually, my wife knows that the most caring thing I can do right now is work to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. Sitting on my tuckus all day wouldn't help the kid or the wife, either in the long or short term.