Discussions at the office re: security cameras (due to some thefts of computers from labs, etc.) got me to thinking about webcams, video motion detectors, and so forth. Not as a solution to the problem (that’s outside my area), but from more of a “that’s a good idea, there oughtta be a way” perspective. It seemed to me that there ought to be some easy-to-use software that took advantage of the cameras built into today’s Macintosh platform (my computer of choice!). I went looking and quickly came up with a link to EvoCam. This is a nice piece of software (yes, I did pay my $25). Tons of options & features, for logging, for publishing to web sites, for emailing pictures, etc. Easy to use. I did have to think about about how to configure the SMTP service for port 587 (no config box for that, just use something like “your.smtpserver.com:587”). I tried to use it with the Google SMTP service, but that uses SSL and Evocam doesn’t support that. I sent an email to the Evocam support address and had a response back in minutes. I just used another SMTP service.
As a test, I’ve put up a page (no longer working) that takes a picture of me in my office every five minutes. Not very exciting 😉 but I’ve gotta remember not to pick my nose now!
This should work when my laptop is docked and I’m in my office at UNCG, but obviously won’t when I’m away. I don’t think it will work transparently with the laptop’s built-in iSight, since I’ve got it configured for the external iSight that sits on my Apple Cinema Display.
I took the very easy way out and hosted it on dotmac, since I could just tell Evocam to save the picture on the directory that’s exposed to the web. Could have done it on another server from my “jdunns.com” domain and used FTP, but this was the simplest way to go…
I’ve found that it does switch cameras. At least from the external iSight to the internal. Have not tried the reverse route yet. Therefore, you’ll see postings from various places where this laptop is opened…
An interesting but very logical observation. CPU consumption is related to the size of the canvas. I noticed this primarily because on my laptop, when the CPU is running “hot” the fan kicks in. With a 640×480 canvas, the CPU was about 55% of one core. With a 320×240 canvas, it drops to about 25%. I’ll run with the smaller canvas on this system, since I don’t like to hear the fan.