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 Google has been no help; all the sites are either outdated in terms of ranking or the most recent ones recommend a Foscam.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

Really?

[jawtheshark]

First of all, why not simply upload a PDF with the new menu every day? That is easy, and scriptable. (For example, copy finished menu in any format in a folder. This folder is polled occasionaly for new content, if new content is there, eventually convert (doc, docx, odt to pdf), and upload to FTP server. Done.)

Second, you could just take a stock webcam, attach it to an RPi, let it make a picture, let's say every 15 minutes and upload it to the desired FTP server. 100% scriptable.

Personally, I think this idea is ripe for abuse. Somebody is going to draw penises on the menu and it will be there on the site for all to see. Overthink your workflow instead of doing this.

Because

[koan]

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