[TriLUG] [OT] Security Camera Systems

[P. L. Charles Fischer]

There are lots of wireless cameras out there.  I found one for $79.00.  The 
problem is that it is still video at the receiver.  You can use one of the 
cheap (<$150) frame grabber boards that works with Video for Linux to get 
the image into the computer.

Is this just for fun or do you need a very good quality image.  If a cheap 
240 line video camera will work you have lots of options.  If you would 
like a better image for not a lot of money look at some of the digital 
cameras which are supported under Linux.  Some of them have view finder 
video out (Canon G3 I think) which can be feed into a frame grabber board, 
then when motion is detected a high resolution image can be snapped and 
downloaded into the computer.

If you go the frame grabber route I have software that runs on Fedora Core 
2 that I use for timing bicycle time trials.  It works by doing a motion 
detect and saving the image with a time stamp.  I also have a version that 
uses a photo eye connected to the printer port to detect when to save an 
image.  It would not take much to adapt it to surveillance work.  The only 
problem is that it is not up to open source standards.  In other words I 
still need to clean it up a bit, OK a lot.  You are welcome to it, even the 
source code, but not under the GPL.  Sorry, I do not want my messy work out 
in public.  When I have time I am working on cleaning up the 
software.  When it is done I plan on releasing it under the GPL.

If you want to talk about more options e-mail me off list.

-Charles Fischer