There are many security cameras that promise to capture any movement in your home. These systems give you peace of mind when you're away. Well, if you have a USB camera and a computer, you already have everything you need to set up a cheap motion detection system, without spending a dime.
The approach we're going to take in this setup is to connect USB cameras to a computer, located in the center of your home, and set them up to detect any motion. Then you'll have the system alert you with an instant email.
Just about any webcam software will work, as long as it's capable of triggering an email every time a camera detects motion. In this case, we'll focus on the very popular Webcam Monitor, which we've reviewed in the past Go Ghost Hunting With Your Internet Browser Go Ghost Hunting With Your Internet Browser Read More. The only difference now is that the free version only allows two hours of monitoring. Therefore, unless you are experienced enough to create a Windows process to kill and restart the application every two hours, it is best to buy the low-cost premium version.
This is what you need for this setup:
This approach works even on very old PCs. This is because the software is compatible up to Windows Vista. Once you install and run the software, the right side of the webcam control panel has icons for each connected USB camera. What is USB Type-C? What is USB Type-C? Oh, the USB connector. It's as ubiquitous now as it is notorious for not being able to be plugged in correctly the first time. Read more.
All you have to do is select the camera you want to use for motion control. Great ways to use motion sensors in your home. Great ways to use motion sensors in your home. Today's motion products have uses that go beyond providing home security. In this article, you'll learn more about motion sensors and the ways you can use them to improve your life. Read more . Then select When motion is detected under Startup Actions, and click Configure button.
You will have the option to set the motion control sensitivity for each camera, individually. The best approach here is to point the camera in the direction you want and let the blue bar settle. Once you see the level of "static" movement that is present, simply slide the black slider a little above that level.
It's a good idea to have someone walk in front of the camera and see how high the blue bar is. It should go past where you have the black slider set. If you want to prevent cats or dogs from triggering movement, have them move around in the frame and see where the blue bar sits. Try placing the black slider above where pets trigger the blue bar, but below where someone walking in front of the camera does.
Once you are done setting the camera sensitivity, return to the main screen on the right side of the dashboard. For each camera you'll want to make sure that the “Email Notification” checkbox is enabled. Then click the Configure button.
This page is where you will need to configure your email server settings. Gmail is an ideal email service for this purpose. It offers POP and IMAP capability, and is extremely easy to set up.
With either service, you'll need an outgoing smtp.gmail.com server. , and SSL security. For the exact outgoing server and port settings, search for email server settings Configure an email client? Here is the mail server information for the 3 largest email providers that set up an email client? Here is the mail server information for the 3 largest email providers. Are you still using any desktop email clients? The last one I made significant use of was Outlook Express, and that feels like ages ago. Since then, I've given both Thunderbird and... Read More
If you have multiple USB cameras connected to PC, remember to click each of them at once in Webcam Monitor. Then go through the same setup screens as described above.
You now have all of your USB cameras set up to send email notification alerts to your email inbox. The next step is to set up a system that will log all activity from each camera to your Google spreadsheet.
Before moving on to this stage of the project, it's important to make sure you've set up your previous email notifications correctly. Specifically, you want to make sure that the subject line you set for each notification is different. This way you will know, based on the subject line, which camera the notification is coming from.
For example, in my case I had a camera issue an email with the subject, “WebCam Monitor Alert Notification #1”. The other had the subject line, “WebCam Monitor Alert Notification #2”.
The subject line is important. It will be the trigger for your IFTTT recipe. Automate Your Learning:Level Up With This Powerful IFTTT Recipe Automate Your Learning:Level Up With This Powerful IFTTT Recipe Learning isn't easy. Putting a little effort into it every day is crucial to your progress. Armed with an automation tool like IFTTT, it might be easier than you think. Read more . The recipe will use this to insert the correct information into your home activity monitoring spreadsheet. You'll see this below.
In your IFTTT account, search for the “Gmail” trigger, and select New email in search inbox . This trigger allows you to customize a search specifically for your exact email subject lines, as shown below.
For the next step, choose Google Drive as the activation channel, and Add row to spreadsheet like the trigger. This trigger allows you to define all the fields that will be passed to the spreadsheet from the email notification. These include information such as when the alert was received and a link to the attached IFTTT photo of the image captured from the camera.
The last stop is defining the path you want the home activity monitoring spreadsheet to go. Make it an easy path to remember so you can easily access it from your phone. In this way, you can check the activity log from your phone whenever you want.!
Once you've fully configured your cameras and IFTTT account to start tracking motion events in your home, you'll see your spreadsheet start to populate with information. The most important field is the link to the actual photos that the camera captures when motion is detected. These are stored in an IFTTT "locker" for you to access later.
Este sistema es una de las formas más baratas de configurar un sistema de monitoreo de movimiento en el hogar. Si ya tiene una PC vieja Revive su vieja PC con LightXlX LXLE Revive su vieja PC con LightXlux LXLE ¿Tiene una PC o netbook viejas con las que no quiera separarse? Una distribución ligera de Linux puede dar nueva vida a su hardware y la nueva distribución LXLE es perfecta para esto. Lea más o coloque su computadora portátil, la única inversión puede ser solo unas pocas cámaras USB baratas. Si tiene algunos de los que están por ahí, no tiene que comprar nada para armar este sistema de seguridad residencial.!
Cuando esté configurando esta configuración económica de monitoreo de movimiento en el hogar, tenga en cuenta las siguientes consideraciones:
Para mucha gente, la idea de configurar un sistema de seguridad para el hogar puede que los sistemas de seguridad para el hogar no sean tan seguros como usted cree. Home security systems may not be as secure as you think. Aquí echamos un vistazo a algunos de los sistemas de seguridad para el hogar inteligente más notables. hacks - explorando lo que pasó y por qué sucedió. Leer más, especialmente uno que puede hacer algo tan avanzado como escribir alertas en una hoja de cálculo basada en la nube, parece increíblemente complejo.
La verdad es que el procedimiento anterior se puede finalizar en menos de 30 minutos. Puede tener un sistema de seguridad para el hogar efectivo en funcionamiento en su hogar, y puede hacerlo usted mismo sin ninguna tecnología o experiencia en programación..
¿Entonces, Qué esperas? Configure su sistema y cuéntenos cómo fue en la sección de comentarios a continuación.!
