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Finding a Customizable Webcam (and Other Devices)?
MankyD asks: "I'm in the market for a webcam. Wireless is preferred, but Internet connectivity is a must. I've found some OK-looking products, but nothing fantastic. The best-looking cam I've found we already have at work and it's not that great. The cam we have at work would be awesome if I could open up the code — customize the built-in web pages and/or write my own Java viewer — but that doesn't look like its going to happen any time soon. Has anyone ever found an IP camera that will allow you to customize it? Whats the best way to go about finding one? What about hackable devices in general — how do you find gadgets that let you tinker with their software?"
I like the Axis cameras. Write a quick script to grab the images and display them in your custom webpage, it's a 10-minute job. Plus, I think the cameras actually run Linux, which I know is a big selling point in some crowds.
I'm pretty certain Linksys makes a Linux-based 802.11g / ethernet webcam and posts the firmware source for it.
"Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
Check out Spook an open source, highly customizable or embeddible streaming server. It is best paired with a firewire camera, but those can be had easily for $100; I love my UniBrain Fire-i camera. There is also a Freshmeat page on the project.
For the "hackable devices in general" you seek, this controller looks really cool. This presentation also gives some cool, potentially less expensive ideas.
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have you checked out linuxdevices.com ? they've got info on a bunch of different linux based devices, including some webcams as I recall.
Linksys makes a new WRT series router, the WRTSL54GS, with a USB 2.0 port. By loading a distribution like OpenWRT on it, you can attach a Linux-supported webcam to it and make some CGIs to be served up by one of the available web servers for OpenWRT.
Asus also makes some OpenWRT compatible routers, the WL-500g series, which also have USB ports, but you can serve up webcam images using the default Asus firmware.
-- thalakan
Rabbit Semiconductor makes a nifty Camera Application Kit. But at $500 you may want to try hacking a commercial unit. The nice thing about this one is that it has pan, tilt, and all the software comes with the kit along with a compiler and other tools needed to customize it. Yes, I'm affiliated with them, no I don't make any money from this shameless plug.
-Adam
digitalxtractions.net is a new company out of Rochester ny, looking to make wireless IP enabled cameras a reality.
Can some fellow /.'s recomend a webcam software that can stream to mutiple users (not just on a subnet or internal network) and has good authentication to prevent unauthorised viewing of the streams?
We have a bunch of Canon VB-C10 's at work... full pan/tilt/zoom, and it runs embedded linux. The zoom works really well (you can read license plates in the parking lot from a camera mounted in a 4th floor office). The embedded webserver dishes out java viewers as well as several examples on how to embed still captures and preset captures into your own web pages. Ultimately these beasts will run you well over a grand USD, though.
If it was for me, I would simply attach a $150 USB Logitech Quickcam Orbit (there are Linux drivers for rudimentary PTZ) to a $250 USB-over-IP dongle, and have it run to a configured server. This would only give you USB1.0 framerates, though, so you might consider running a long USB2.0 extension cord (if you're within, say 10m) or a USB2.0-over-CAT5 extender (though these might be hard to come by too).
Anyway, have fun... I'm still pining for my wifi-controlled webcam robot with manipulator arm.
Also, the D-Link's (as do many webcams) have a built-in web server ... but also allow FTP'ing of jpeg snapshots. For any type of scalability, you need to rebroadcast (i.e. single stream from the webcam to your web server, and then to the public from there). This is fairly easy with jpegs ... but streaming video would be soooo much sweeter than image refreshes every couple of seconds ... and good how-to's to do this?
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
Just read about this yesterday, looks pretty cool.
- the-Spying-for-You.htm
Check out the description here on camcorderinfo:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Linksys-Does
I think, therefore I thought.
...are Linux-based, have built-in image analysis, and should deserve a closer look in your scenario. HTH!
Apple's MacBooks come with iSight, and Sony Vaio SZ series also comes with little built-in cameras.
Simpy
Just bought the basic 802.11-enabled Hawking model...
In an unusual turn for them, the networking part of it actually works great... Setting it up goes exactly as they describe it in the manual, and (unlike every other Hawking product I've used), it doesn't shit the bed and require a manual reset after even a momentary loss of connectivity.
The image quality and convenience of getting snaps from it - Ugh. Without some work, you have no choice but to use either a browser and their built-in Java app, or their very custom (and all but useless) software.
With a bit of work (read: You need NetCat and something like dd that can extract byte ranges from the raw crap it send to nc), you can convince it to send you snapshots, but you get very low quality images (as in, under 20k for a 640x480 still).
And for something in the $100 range, you might think it would include at least basic autofocus or even a cheap 18"-to-infinity lens - Nope. Turn the stupid little ring on the lens, and pray your subject doesn't move outside a certain magic box.
My 24h webcam is an AXIS model, too. I am very satisfied.
They also do have wireless models.
-- Watch me working: www.magerquark.de
There's an open-source webcam software called Motion that is fully customizable, and has built in motion triggering, streaming web-server, pan/tilt (if you have an orbit webcam or similar), creation of time-lapse video, and tons of features and plug-ins:
m e
http://www.lavrsen.dk/twiki/bin/view/Motion/WebHo
Now, see, I have the opposite problem. I'm looking for a webcam that can't connect to the internet. Can anyone help me with that?
There are 11 types of people in the world: those who can count in binary, and those who can't.
Stroller.
Sorry, I will try to :-).
-- Watch me working: www.magerquark.de
This is, by now means, a linux solution (flame away), but there is a great article on MSDN about a webcam project. Includes motion detection, wired/wireless, and a few other hacks.
Enjoy!
There are a plethora of web cameras out there. Everything form the excellent but expensive Canon and Axis netcams to the ridiculous assortment of Logitec and Creative USB cameras. But, if we rule out the expensive Axis and the REALLY expensive Canon, what's left that is any good?
Who here has experience with the various USB webcams and can comment on which one is best?
Which one best supports Linux?
Which one offers the best picture size/quality/frame rate?
Which one offers the best picture:bandwidth ratio?
Which one is the best overall?
I'm not asking for comments from people who just bought their first cheap camera and THINK it r0x0rs. You are clueless. I'm asking for people who have tried several cameras and are qualified to make a comparison or review.
Panasonic BL-C10A (Amazon note: they like to tinker with the price of this camera; I bought mine when they were $165)
I've got four of these setup at home to monitor the dogs while we're out of the house. They're not wireless (I have them mounted in fixed locations so I just ran Cat5e through the attic to the cameras) but I believe Panasonic makes a wireless version. Things I like about these cameras:
It's not customizable in the sense that the embedded software is open source (at least I don't think it is -- probably the customized Linux they use is available somewhere, but I doubt the web service stuff is). However, they provide very thorough documentation (pdf) of the camera's cgi interface, so you can easily roll your own front end that talks to it. I had plans to do this, but I've found that their own front end works well enough for most accesses.
One thing that I have done is write a little perl script that uses wget to grab a still image every 6 seconds from each camera while we're gone. These are saved and later combined via an AppleScript that I wrote to create a movie of each day's activities. I've found all kind of interesting stuff by reviewing these movies after the fact -- like one day we got a mouse in the house, which the cat subsequently chased off.
Say hello to zMac.
How about that CVS camera... I don't know if theres anything Webcam specific out there, but it'll only cost you about $25 and theres a decent sized community behind it.
I've not found too many hackable webcams. In this instance I'd suggest foregoing hackability for realiability and being able to access the camera's output easily with linux or open source tools. I found the DCS-900 series (particularly the DCS-G900, which is 802.11G) works very well with open-source tools like motion.
I've played with hawking, panasonic, and D-link. I found hawking useless. The panasonic cameras have a GREAT API that works via http requests and is well documented; however I found the cameras would hang every 2-3 weeks. The DCS is pretty basic, but once it's set up it's rock solid, and you can do the interesting stuff on a host elsewhere on the network trivially. The other nice thing (and this is hardware hacking) is that the DCS-9xx series uses a standard lens mount, so you can swap out the lens for a better one or something more suited to your purpose. In my case I swapped it out for a fisheye to provide a much larger area of coverage for site monitoring.
As far as the greater question of hackable hardware, google is definitely your friend. Most devices get torn apart pretty quickly, and if the firmware can be upgraded with a OSS solution it's pretty well known. I've been surprised at some items -- the DSL modem I recieved from the telco, for example, had OSS recipes for opening it up and upgrading parts of the network stack. Also, certain vendors get a rep for being hackable, such as the linksys WAPs mentioned elsewhere in this thread. I usually just start picking a few specific part/model numbers for the hardware I'm interested and google on hacks/firmware upgrades, teardowns, etc.
Disclaimer, I work for IQinVision, but we have a line of IP cameras that allow complete customization at the HTML level and also have a completely documented HTTP and C++ interface. http//www.iqeye.com