[plug] open source video (burglar) surveillance

[Chris Caston]

So can one use video capture cards with Linux?

regards,

Chris

On Thu, 2003-09-25 at 07:31, Scott Middleton wrote:
> On Wed, 2003-09-24 at 22:48, Denis Brown wrote:
> > I'm wondering if anyone has investigated or used open source software for
> > the purposes of video surveillance for theft.   The context is my son's
> > preschool where several pilferings have occurred.  I'm musing about the
> > possibility of using (something like) the Wizard mini PC, the USB ports
> > interfacing a video camera or two and the processing being done on a
> > frame-difference basis mitigated by time of day, since we'd be interested
> > in out-of-hours activities, region of interest and by the change magnitude
> > - to eliminate false triggerings by dogs, cats, birds, ....
> 
> I've been playing with it lately see:
> http://srgw.linuxit.com.au/~webcam/
> apt-get install webcam. Webcam cost: $50
> Later i plan on using webcamd but standard webcam it works quite well in
> a screen.
> (This is my home ADSL so don't expect good speed if a dozen of you are
> looking at it at the same time.)
> 
> 
> > The school is considering getting broadband so that would make keeping an
> > eye on things (no pun!) a bit easier.  This should be a modern spin on
> > something we (industry) used to use many years ago in the slow-scan TV
> > line.   A frame capture device would compare successive frames of video
> > and, in the presence of a significant change in a defined
> > region-of-interest, would raise an alarm.   It was pretty crude by today's
> > standards but it did the job :-)
> > 
> 
> Webcam takes a photo and compares it with the last and if it is
> different keeps it(Settings between 0-255). Every hour i run a shell
> script which uses mencoder to encode it to a divx :)
> http://srgw.linuxit.com.au/~webcam/video/
> It is interesting to look at the file sizes of the AVIs as the are
> indicative of the amount of car traffic outside my house (I live on a
> pretty busy road).
> 
> 
> > I've just done a bit of Googling and had a hunt on Sourceforge and
> > Freshmeat without too much in the way of direct hits.  There are several
> > commercial approaches, including a turn-key solution from iomojo, several
> > offerings from Axis (manufacturer of video and other servers), etc.   I
> > don't doubt there is something out there but neither do i fancy ruffling
> > through Mr Google's nearly 8000 hits on "surveillance, video, linux, open
> > source" and so on keywords.   Freshmeat turned up net-cam but documenttion
> > is sparse and it seems to talk of Axis-2000-something cameras, probably
> > related to the other Axis reference.
> > 
> 
> For a relatively cheap hardware solution that i thought was pretty cool.
> http://www.netcomm.com.au/one/support/specification/Network%20Camera%20Spec.pdf
> 
> > In summary: one or two (or more?) webcams connected (USB?) to some cheap
> > Linux-based hardware.  Within a defined time of day, and region of
> > interest in the camera(s) field(s) of view, a snapshot of the DIFFERENCES
> > is taken.   If the quantity of different pixels is sufficient, this
> > information is written to storage, along with the next to-be-decided (5,
> > 10??)  seconds of video.   A flag is set, ready for interrogation at some
> > future time.  A remote PC could then poll the surveillance unit from time
> > to time and retrieve any captured "footage" for analysis / action.
> > 
> 
> I haven't spent much time on it yet it is more of a proof of concept. 
> The webcam has only faulted when a car hit a power poll outside and it
> needed to reboot. The webcam i use doesn't like Linux a hell of a lot
> and is quite slow. Since i have only tried 2 different ones in Linux the
> best being the Logitech some experimentation will be needed. I don't
> think the wizard will be able to do it but i maybe wrong.
> 
> I have been playing with a video camera and capture card also (not
> available on web yet). While being a lot more expensive the quality is
> excellent and the webcam package will still work.
> 
> Regards
-- 
Chris Caston

Manager and technician
Aptitude Technology
http://www.aptitudetech.com.au
ABN: 51614966828

ph: (08) 9478 1530
mobile: 0422 978315

chris at debian:~$ host security.microsoft.com
security.microsoft.com does not exist (Authoritative answer)

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