How to use a webcam and free software as a motion detection video security system. What will you catch on video?
Check out the video of the intruder we caught.
I’m no expert or anything in security systems, but it’s fun to test new things so sometimes I can’t resist testing out software to see what it can do. If I get something working fast I’ll test it a little further. If the software is clunky or frustrates me I’ll dump it pretty quick.
To test out motion triggered video recording I setup a laptop and webcam overnight in our kitchen. Let’s just say there there were signs of nightly intruders. It was a reasonable excuse to test out how well motion detection would work and maybe even get some proof on video.
The mission: mouse motion detection.
We caught the little critter on video. Later we caught ‘em again - permanently.
It worked - mission accomplished. We left the lights on overnight because the webcam was just a regular camera with no fancy night vision. Hey, if a mouse will trigger video detection you’ll have no trouble catching bigger culprits.
The funny thing was I put a piece of a plastic toy pizza out on the floor (along with some other junk as you can see) and the little rat (RRRat is way more fun to say than ‘mouse’) headed for the triangle shape to investigate. Our kids thought that was pretty funny.
Anyway enough about the silly mouse video…
The software I used was iSpy.
It’s open source and works well. It has an impressive list of features including multi-cam, custom motion detection areas, alerts, and lots more. You can also pay for some upgraded services to enable remote access and web services (Email/ SMS/ Twitter/ Cloud).
Here’s just a few of the features from a long list:
- Unlimited cameras
- Detect, highlight, track and record movement
- Record video and audio on demand (and via the web)
- Customize movement detection areas on your cameras
- FTP and SFTP frames from your camera to a remote server
- Capture Snapshots and Timelapse
- Email, SMS and Twitter alerts
- Access and control iSpy remotely via iSpyConnect
Check out the full list of features at http://www.ispyconnect.com/features.aspx
They claim over 2 million users, so they must be doing something right.
The screenshot above is a quick example of the detection zones that you can set so that motion is only triggered parts of the image you want.
My camera was off in for the example above but the black area wouldn’t trigger motion detection so you can prevent a window or tree branches and leaves from continuously triggering video recording.
You can set sensitivity and the zones you want to trigger video recording.
I’m certainly no expert with the software, but I got it working for my purposes pretty quick.
It looks very capable and you can also use more advanced IP cameras, audio, automatic uploading, alerts, and more. It’s impressive for the price tag of completely FREE. Amazing.
If you find it useful consider donating to the iSpy open source project on their website.
So all that’s left is to check it out - maybe just for fun or maybe setup some video security with an old laptop and webcam. You never know what you’ll discover…
I've got a future post in mind about a simple WiFi motion sensor we’ve starting using that we can control from our smartphones and also get notifications if it triggers. A post for another day...
I hope this was interesting for you. Let me know if you try out iSpy!