carrier82

The vacuum robots are quite autonomous as they can reach the recharging base on their own and continue work. This is close to what I'm talking about, but putting an armed guard robot in the house kind of freaks me out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12A3jAjCghE

Now that vacuum robots are becoming quite sophicticated, for example the Neato Robotics cleaners which use SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) technology to map and clean the apartment using laser range finders, I wonder when moving robot cameras will be available for everyone. The technology is here already, and semi-intelligent moving camera guards would be the next step from PTZ cameras...

You might try any NVR with external video servers as well, most video servers have I/O ports. Some recording software may be able to react to emails sent by the existing system as well, at least one open source video monitoring software for linux can...

No. My process is reported here http://www.openipcam.com/forum/index.php/topic,385.0.html and the project about to come to an end without success. Don't say it's impossible, but perhaps beyond my capabilities.

Try to hack into the file system somehow. Perhaps telnet or ftp (or even serial connection via rs232 or jtag pins on circuit board) might work. When you are familiar with the structure, that might give you clues on how to access. I have a similar problem with an ip cam that only supports activex. I guess there is no easy way unless there is some kind of hidden cgi-bin directory for these functions. Other option is to wtite client code of your own Lesson learned at least for me: stay away of activex/ie only stuff. If manufacturer mentions only access via IE, there might not be any alternatives to that. God i hate activex!

Zoneminder can be configured to react to almost anything almost any way you want. Needs some knowledge of linux, scripting etc though. But i recently configured it to start recording on motion detected by my acti acm1231 camera (as well as pir motion detectors attached to my axis 2400 video servers and vivotek cam) and that wasn't overwhelming to do, but to some it might be.

buellwinkle, that's a good and cheap to try idea. Ordered a couple of UV filters off ebay, we'll see the results in a few years

Soundy said this in another thread: Main thing I can see is that the cheaper one is a video iris type, which most cameras don't support. With video iris, the camera mainly just provides power to the lens, and the lens itself controls the iris. Video iris used to be a lot more common, but not so much these days. I was wondering, could i install a video drive lens to the iqeye camera and provide the voltage to the lens myself? Or do these kind of lenses require some kind of interaction with the camera?

Are we still talking about megapixel wifi cameras?

I chose to set up a dedicated Linux box for recording. The reason is that the Zoneminder software is so versatile. I have a bunch of different make chinese/better quality cameras, almost none of them onvif compliant. If I have some way to get pictures or stream from the camera, eg via ftp, via http or via rtsp, the software is capable of processing it. Afaik this kind of wide array of supported ip cameras is not possible with embedded systems.

Thanks, Blake CCTV. Is the iris set wide open on those Areconts?

Err... No, I would expect at least five years life from a camera

On a second thought, I just had an idea for a good location opposite the garage where I can point the camera to not have direct exposure to the sun , hopefully it'll suffice. Any success stories on fixed iris and outdoor environment?

Hello world! I got an IQeye series 4 (1,3 Mpix) camera fairly cheap and was planning to put it outdoors in a weatherproof enclosure. The camera does not seem to have auto-iris feature, which might cause problems (glare, sensor wear) in sunlight? Is it a strict no-no, or could some safeguards be implemented to extend the outdoor lifespan of the camera? Location is quite up north and sun tends to shine quite low most of the year. Pointing the camera north is not a valid option in my plan.

Yes, i suppose better makes like Axis offer the frame rate they promise, but they do cost money. With cheap ones, the reliability and frame rate can be an issue.