Set up remote observation system

Every time you are away from home, you may not feel secure because the new LCD TV " buys " whether it is still in the right place in the living room or the cars still remain in the garage. Set up your home a remote surveillance camera system over the network, from which you can observe it with your computer or mobile phone.

Equipment needed

Using a webcam you can install a simple surveillance system that costs nothing. A basic monitoring system usually requires 3 main components: camera; motion detection software responsible for animation processing; Image compression software for sending images over the Internet.

In particular, the camera is always the most core device of this system. Therefore, the more expensive a webcam is, the more features and specialized software that comes with the D-Link SECURICAM. A very convenient feature only available in expensive webcams is the ability to detect pre-lens activity (motion detection). With this feature, you can create a system to protect and detect thieves or intrusions in a certain area.

A modern security observation system.Of course, you don't need this scale

Most webcams connect the computer via USB but the cable's limit is both on the power supply and the signal transmission within a maximum of 5 meters. If you want to expand the scope of observation, you can search for the type of webcam that connects the wireless indirect USB port.

More advanced, IPcam devices can be located at any location with a network connection. The function of this device allows direct connection to the network without the need for a computer, so this product is the ideal choice for offices or apartments using wireless networks.

These devices are very diverse in function as well as convenience, so before deciding to set up a surveillance system for the office or home, things to consider are surveying the location of the webcam installation. or whether the camera is near the power supply and the observation area needs to include audio signals such as indoor animals or only images, from which you will make the appropriate choice for each device. as well as reasonable use. As such, you can use any type of webcam, as long as the device is installed and works well in the Windows environment on your computer.

Specialized software

WebCam-Control-Center 7.0 is an application that helps you build and manage surveillance systems even with a cheap webcam. The main function of the software is to record the image before the lens and simultaneously send it to the website or file transfer server (FTP).

This program is compatible with the operating system: Windows 95/98 / NT / ME / 2000 / XP / Vista. You can download the trial version here or purchase the full version at the software store.

Interface of Webcam-Control-Center

After installation, depending on the type of Webcam, you can adjust the corresponding parameters in the Device Settings section to make the image captured in the Preview window the clearest.

To test the program's ability to detect motion before the lens, direct the lens to the area to be monitored, and then press the Adjust button in the Motion Detector area to the right of the program console. In the General Settings section, click the Select Revelant Picture Areas button and then color the area selection in the frame where you need to track the change.

Next, go to the Action At Detection panel and choose how to respond when the program detects strange movements in the marked area. The most commonly used ways to save images, record avi movies, send them to certain e-mail addresses and push images to a Web server or FTP.

Corresponding to each response, in the Adjust section, you will see the items containing the corresponding parameters. We will modify these parameters accordingly. On the Picture Taking table, select and change the image file name, the folder containing these images. For ease of management, select the function to add the serial number to the back of the photo. However, to avoid overloading the hard drive, you should also determine the maximum number of saved images (the latest image will overwrite the oldest image when the number is over).

Similarly, in the AVI Recording table, you also select the folder and file name as well as the attached sequence number. You need to rely on the disk capacity to determine how many seconds to record each time using the Set the AVI length to parameter (default is 10 seconds).

In order to receive the captured content right away when there is a change in front of the camera, go back to the main window of the program and click the Adjust button in the File Transfer section. These are the parameters that allow transferring the received file to the Website, FTP server or sending it to the Mail Server.

With the configuration section of Email Sending , you need to enter the recipient address, SMTP mail server, your e-mail address, mail header as well as mail content. In the recipient address section, you can enter multiple addresses at the same time, then select and mark an address in it.

In the lower part of these parameters, you decide to let the program take a self-image or go back to the video with a fixed name then send it. End the configuration of this e-mail, do not forget to press the Send Email Now button and check whether the e-mail sent to the receiving address or not.

The second way to send the captured image and movie files is to use an FTP server. The configuration of sending the file to the FTP server will include the following contents: FTP server name or address, login account to that server and the directory will contain the files to be transferred. In this file transfer, you can also ask the webcam to take a picture before moving it, or select and transfer existing files in the current folder. The Transfer Now button helps you to transfer these files to an FTP server.

However, after configuring the parameters of Email Sending or FTP , do not forget to return to the General section and activate their features. You can also choose the timing of these features by selecting a calculation time period in 12 or 24 hours.

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