Remote observation by webcam

So far, webcam devices have been used almost exclusively for conversation / chatting with images when using Yahoo Messenger or Skype, few think that this "cheap" device is likely to become a system. Effective remote observation if combined with i-Catcher Sentry dedicated software 2.2.

I-Catcher Sentry 2.2 is priced at £ 79, and can download a 21-day trial version here .

Preparation steps

First, connect the webcam to your computer, open the supplied CD or floppy, and launch the device driver installation tool on it (usually the Setup file). Connect the network cable to the computer if you want to perform remote monitoring.

View images using webcam ( Source: i-Catcher Sentry )

Next, proceed to install i-Catcher Sentry software. Once installed, run this software and the first time you use it, you will be asked to enter the activation code (received via the email address you provided to the manufacturer during the software download process). .

Start a job

From the i-Catcher Sentry main interface, click on the Video feed button on the toolbar to proceed to select the camera to watch (because your computer can connect to multiple webcams or other observation devices). In the dialog box that appears, in the Capture device section, select the webcam model to use from the drop-down menu and click OK . Next, click the Source button, in the Video Source Configuration Properties dialog box, adjust the brightness, contrast, color saturation, image compression quality and many other parameters, press OK to finish. .

With i-Catcher Sentry, you can monitor the webcam area in two ways: directly on the computer that installed this software or from another computer on the network (LAN or Internet) via the web interface.

If you want to watch directly from a computer with a webcam connection, select Show streamings right on the toolbar and the Video Stream window will appear immediately afterwards; may also have Motion Windows window. Video Stream will reflect real-time images in the surveillance area of ​​the webcam and you can zoom in / out the image 2 times. Meanwhile, the Motion Windows window helps you determine which zones to set up when you detect unauthorized intrusion (motion detect), which by default will be the entire webcam surveillance area.

To create a new warning area, click on the last icon in the toolbar of the Motion Detect window, select New and on the window that displays the observed webcam area a rectangular frame will appear. Please move, adjust this frame size to match the warning area, you can continue to select New to create more positions, then click OK to finish.

To enable motion detection (this also activates network monitoring), click the Start monitoring button on the toolbar. When detecting movement in the surveillance area, i-Catcher Sentry is able to send alert information (with images) via email, ftp or sound (via computer speakers) or launch another program. on the computer.

If the i-Catcher Sentry computer is connected to an intranet or Internet, you can view it remotely via a web browser. However, the first thing you need to do is turn on the HTTP server feature of this software. Click the Settings button on the toolbar, select Configure Manually and then click the HTTP server tab. Next, check Enable embedded HTTP Server , select the IP address of the computer you are using from the drop-down menu, then click OK . Make sure, the software is running motion detection mode (the Start monitoring button has changed to Stop monitoring button).

From another computer, open your browser, type in the IP address you just selected above (eg 192.168.0.145), a web page with an image of the observed webcam area will appear. You can also zoom in / out and select the image quality displayed right on this site. During the process of writing this article, I was able to simultaneously from 6 computers (using IE or Firefox) remotely watching on the intranet with Creative Go Plus webcam and found the motion picture very "smooth" .

In addition, if the webcam computer is using an ADSL broadband connection with a dynamic IP address and you need to observe this webcam from anywhere on the Internet, consider configuring the modem / router to use. Dynamic DNS service.

Review as needed

It is almost certain that you cannot be on duty 24/24 in front of a computer screen to observe what is happening in the area where the webcam observes. Luckily, whenever movement is detected (Motion Detect is enabled), i-Catcher Sentry saves these images as JPEG files and provides a playback feature as a slideshow. From the main interface, click the Playback button on the toolbar and a new window will appear. You can choose to review images at a specific time (date and time) as well as print them to paper or combine them into video files in AVI format. A similar feature is also supported when viewed from the browser: click on the Playback link on the left of the web interface and use the same as the software on the computer.

The article only introduces the most basic features of i-Catcher Sentry software, so keep exploring to make the familiar webcam more effective as a remote observation device.

Hong Vy