Ask Slashdot: Is There a Modern IP Webcam That Lets the User Control the Output?

First time accepted submitter Tronster writes Owners of a local shop have a menu that changes daily and wanted an IP webcam to update an image on their web-site. After a frustrating 2 hours of a "Hikvision" refusing to behave, I threw in the towel and looked for a better camera to recommend. The biggest issue today is that the new webcams that come out don't support FTP, they all support sending images/video direct to a "private cloud" (e.g., Simplicam, Dropcam, etc...). Google has been no help; all the sites are either outdated in terms of ranking or the most recent ones recommend a Foscam. They previously tried one of these and it's image quality was too poor. While security systems and home automation has been discussed recently, I haven't found any recent discussions on webcams that give a user control of where the content is sent. Does anyone in the Slashdot community have recommendations, reputable sites that are up-to-date in rankings, and/or hacks to have control over some of these newer cameras?

Comments

Pie

[CurryCamel]

Finally, a proper use case for the Raspberry Pi. And in its natural habitat at that!

Re:Pie

[unrtst]

Agreed! However, I've read this far and have not seen anyone actually answer his direct question.

So: D-Link DCS-930L:
* about $30
* wired or wireless network
* IP camera
* 640x480 (may be low-ish, but should be enough for a menu if properly framed in the FoV)
* FTP client support

If it was me, I'd just have them write the menu twice:
1. on chalkboard
2. on a form that updates the webpage (or just in a markdown doc and have that uploaded; or in something else and have them export to pdf and upload; etc)

They're already having someone write it by hand on a chalkboard whenever it changes. That takes WAY more time than writing by hand on paper, and both take longer than typing.

If they *really* need the fully automated chalkboard-to-web solution, then the Raspberry Pi is a perfect solution. You could also use any old or new mini pc (zotac zbox; asus eee box; chrombox; etc) + any camera or webcam you want. Install linux and "motion". Have motion upload new images when the image changes, or use a cron job to schedule it (ex. if they turn the lights off at night, you probably don't want motion to upload a black snapshot). You could also combine the two - enable motion during the day and disable it at night via cron but use it to decide when to upload.

Maybe this is "too much work". As others have pointed out, there's more than one way to skin this cat. Cheapest and most readily available and very simple would be to have them take the picture with their phone and upload it. This could be tweaked an any number of ways as needed. For example:
a) write a mini app to do this. This would hide the file renaming, ftp settings, etc, and it's just be a button to take a picture and a button to say "ok, upload that". Writing apps is like that is REALLY easy.
b) save the photos to dropbox or upload to twitter etc. Then, server side, script it to find the most recent when displaying the menu.
c) Just tell them how and write that on a piece of paper for them to follow: take picture; save it; go into ftp app; select it; rename it to "menu.jpg"; click upload

Sharx

[hawkeyeMI]

The Sharx brand cameras are expensive (~$280) but have many great capabilities built in, including dumping to a NAS and motion alerts with emailed snapshots. I've run them in some capacity for over five years with no trouble. My only complaint other than price is that the UI is not always very self-explanatory, and they refuse to post PDF manuals on their site, so don't lose the (extensive) paper manual.

Try this

[Karmashock]

WB350F

It is a regular pocket camera that can connect to wifi and email photos. It might work for you. Have the people pick the camera up, take a picture of the menu, press the email button, and then have the website poll the email account every 10 minutes for a picture sent by the address associated with the camera.

A little messy but I think that is the way to go. It does require people pick the camera up and do that every day. But is that a problem?

Re:Why even use a webcam?

[ArmoredDragon]

If I were to guess, the menu changes daily and is written on something like a chalkboard or whiteboard. They could print it, but the handwriting gives it a homestyle artistic "flare" that the restaurant wants to maintain:

My thought then would be something like this: Get a tablet or smartphone with a wacom stylus (e.g. Galaxy Note 10) and a big TV (say 55", get a used one on CL for about $400 or so.)

Hand write the menu on the tablet (you can use different color writing and background as you desire) and save the image file to a place that uploads it to a computer that is connected to the TV at the restaurant (which is in portrait orientation) and to the website.

Has an added benefit of making it easily readable by the visually impaired, and it looks neat (you can also have it mounted up high somewhere, which might be impractical for a chalkboard/whiteboard.)

I'd imagine you could spend less than $800 on this total setup.

Which Foscam?

[Xolotl]

Saying "they tried a Foscam but the quality was too poor" is like saying "they tried food but didn't like it". Which one? Foscam make dozens of models up to at least 960p (I haven't checked their range recently), I find it hard to believe they won't work for this (or at least any worse than the other manufacturers' cameras).

Re:Because

[Mr D from 63]

You're looking for a "webcam", stop looking for a "webcam" and you will find what you want.

Bingo. These festures are easily found on most modern IP security cameras. And the bonus is they can be configured remotely after initial setup. Mobotix is the high end brand, Axis is high quality....and lower end brands may fit the bill as well.

Re:Really?

[Tronster]

First of all, why not simply upload a PDF with the new menu every day?...

...another task is the exact situation they want to avoid and see technology as a solution.

For those comments about defacing; it's not a small menu off to the side, or in front of the shop, it's a 6 foot tall menu board in the main area (it's an ice-cream shop) which is already updated daily (or a few times a day if they run out of a flavor and cross over to their next batch, etc...) Once a camera is in place, showing the menu online is something they just don't have to worry about any more - updating the menu board updates its on the web.