We have friends watch the cats when we go out-of-town. But we always leave a server running with a webcam (motion activated using the Linux “motion” software) so we can check in on them ourselves. But this project may inspire a change. It leverages the features of a Carambola2 to capture images and upload them to Dropbox.
In the picture above the green PCB is a development board for the tiny yellow PCB which is the actual Carambola2. It is soldered on the dev board using the same technique as those HC-05 Bluetooth modules. That shielded board includes a Qualcomm SoC running Linux and a WiFi radio. The dev board feeds it power and allows it connect to the USB webcam.
There’s a bit of command line kung-fu to get everything running but it shouldn’t be out of reach for beginners. Linux veterans will know that taking snapshots from a webcam at regular intervals is a simple task. Uploading to a secure cloud storage site is not. A Bash script handles the heavy lifting. It’s using the Dropbox Application API so this will not violate their TOS and you don’t have to figure out your own method of authenticating from the command line.
Don’t really see why uploading to a cloud storage site need be difficult but whatever I have a set up similar to this to watch my cat and rabbit when I’m at work.
Agreed. Though it’s a nice setup, it’s no black magic.
I prefer my setup oft having a WR703n doing a live vid feed.
Why upload data to a storage company at all ? Why not port forward to a minimal webserver (less bells and whistles = less possible security flaws e.g. lighthttpd), even running on the embedded device ?
Maybe if it was monitoring the house for robbers I could understand uploading data to an external company (most of which have pretty aggressive Terms and conditions – we own your data, even if you delete it, and in perpetuity can do anything we want with our data)
Always remember “If you’re not paying for It; you’re the product”.
A better quote is this one “If you’re not paying for something, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold”
Always remember, “Even if you are paying for it, you still might be a product”.
To summarize the above – “You’re pretty much screwed no matter what”.
The Carambola2 looks pretty neat tho, too bad no distributor in the States.
The demographics of screw use is highly coveted in the fastener industry.
I don’t see what the problem is. Just encrypt the data before you upload it. That’s all data storage services should ever be–a repository for encrypted bits.
The problem is that 99.99999% of users do not and those who do show up on the like of the NSA PRISM like a neon light bulb saying look at me I’m a terrorist, put me on the global no fly list.
Ok, so I’ve been using a remote wifi enabled camera to put videos and photos of the dog online for years. What, exactly, is new about this?
I did something similar to this a few years ago. I went on vacation to Mexico, and had my sister watch my cats. They are indoor/outdoor animals, So she needed to let them in and out. The problem was: were they waiting to get in or not? Was a trip wasted?
So I used a twitter account, some python, and dropbox.
When she sent a private message to the twitter account, the python script grabbed a snap shot and placed it in my dropbox public folder. She declines to install dropbox, so I then had the script private message her back with an url to the photo. She could do it from any device she choose: no special log-ins were needed on her end.
There was no public visibility for the communications. The script was hard coded to only send to her, even if someone else knew the pass phrase.
I set mine up when I went to the Philippines, so I can call the dog and play laser tag wi her remotely, using an IO-Bridge.
I’m doing something similar with those WR-703N boxes. I wired in a 1S LiPo+mini charge controller in case of power outage and it’s quite happy with the ~3.7V… Serves as my security surveillance system.
Do me a favor, Erik. Don’t charge lipos unattended.
http://www.helifreak.com/archive/index.php/t-194957.html
Wow.
That whole thread was a little over-wrought.
Perhaps you have some solid numbers/research? Li-Po batteries are flame-prone, but that sounds like an extreme case. (Assuming it’s real at all.)
Do you watch all your lipo devices as they are plugged in? I’d probably bet that you charge your phone while you sleep. As I said there is a (“certified”) charge controller on it.
I don’t buy lipo batteries any more since last winter. Yes, it was a “certified” charger that somehow caused a fire in my garage.
Enjoy the insurance papers, RETARD.
That bash script is very useful! I might set this up using raspi and the raspi camera module.
The real hacker’s hack here is the shell script. I haven’ seen (or written) one that long and complicated for a long time.
I agree with you guys. The shell script is a pleasant reminder and looks quite useful :)
The little module looks interesting. It runs openwrt by default which is very nice.