Re: security camera software
On 26/09/14 01:48, Rob Owens wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Scott Ferguson" <scott.ferguson.debian.user@gmail.com>
>>
>> I've been using motion for a few years and highly recommend it.
>> Lightweight[*1], simple, and reliable.
>>
>> Minimal configuration required (snapshot mode):- Point your camera
>> at the zone to be monitored. Take a picture. Edit the picture in
>> GIMP (mask the areas you don't want monitored for motion).
>
> Does this work just as a starting point for motion detection, or can
> you reference this picture for the beginning of any event.
Motion works by comparing pictures for changes. So auto-brightness and
glare protection are required. Masking allows you to filter out areas of
the picture (representing the view of the camera) where change doesn't
represent the sort of movement you wish to detect. So a camera that
views a gate to a paddock will show a car passing through the gate -
it'll also show animals moving in the paddock - birds and planes,
clouds, passing traffic in the distance, trees and grasses. Only a small
rectangle in the centre of the picture is needed to detect the motion of
a vehicle passing through the gate - and the sensitivity of 'motion' to
detect changes in that area of the picture is easily tuned to filter out
noise (animals wandering across that part of the view etc). The end
result is that 'motion' will then reliably detect cars driving through
that gate with few or no false positives. The pictures captured are not
masked - the mask is only used as a reference for 'motion' to compare
snapshots with.
Masking is only for fixed cameras - not pan/tilt/zoom.
> My impression was that it detects motion based on comparing to the
> previous picture.
It does - but you get to chose that picture (reference) and which areas
of the picture to monitor for change.
> So the last picture of the first event would be
> used as the baseline for triggering a second event.
1st event, 2nd event? Do you mean image rather than event - event being
change and image not necessarily showing change??
>
>> Configure motion (set sensitivity and picture frequency) Make sure
>> you've got enough space for the images it will generate - after
>> setting the frequency and archiving. Set up your action on motion
>> detection. I use an sms alert which notifies me of motion and
>> emails the picture of the event and several minutes of photos
>> preceding the event (bash script, sendmail, and gcsms). That way
>> if the cameras and computer get stolen I don't lose the images.
>>
>> [*1]I was impressed to find it runs well on $12 TP-Link TL-WR703N
>> devices
>
> How are you doing that? Running OpenWRT or something?
Yes (OpenWRT). Generally used for remote systems as they have builtin 3G
support, are tiny, cheap, and have minimal power requirements.
Debian is much simpler though.
>
> Thanks for all the info.
If you have any problems post some more detail about your requirements -
what are you monitoring with (still, colour, USB or TV-card etc), what
resources does the system have available (how much RAM, processor), what
do you wish to do (alert only - or remotely viewable and alert, the
latter plus a "video" of a given time period around the motion event etc.).
>
> -Rob
>
>
Kind regards
Reply to: