RFC: Webcam Plugin

streaker69 · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 8:22 am Post subject: RFC: Webcam Plugin

Here's something I've been toying with in regards to making a plugin, but before I go through all the time to created it, I wanted to see if there was actually any interest in such a thing.

Basically, I've developed a way to embed a webcam with motion sensing ability into Cacti. The camera that I'm currently using is a cheap Logitech Communicator STX that I picked up at a local store for $25.00 It works fine in Linux, but there are some caveats. Installing all the supporting stuff is not for the meek of heart when it comes to Linux. There's a few different things that need to be installed before you're ready to embed the video into Linux.

If there's interest in this, then I'll try to put together a package of all the stuff you'll need in Linux (I cannot say the Windows people will be able to use it). I'll try to write up decent instructions on how to get everything configured and get a plugin written that is usable.

Right now the camera display at the bottom of this post is watching out the front of my office, if there's movement, it captures the movement, sends me an email of the image it captured and logs the information to a database. So you can see it's actually kind of useful. It could be used to watch your server rooms or whatever.

It does have the ability to run more than one camera, as well as watch streams from cameras attached to other machines, or even Ethernet Cameras. Cameras attached to other machines would need to have the supporting software installed, as the plugin, basically just connects to a given video stream.

So if a few of you guys are interested in it, post here with ideas and suggestions and I'll start working on it.

gandalf · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:18 am Post subject:

Well, that sounds like magic!
Your plugin ambitions are lifting off like a rocket! Congratulations!
And there's a loud "yes" to your answer. And I'd like you to join us at 3.CCC.eu for a demo of this, that's for sure

Reinhard

streaker69 · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:23 am Post subject:

gandalf · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:29 am Post subject:

Your plugin will make cacti a real "intrusion detection system", won't it?
Reinhard

streaker69 · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:13 am Post subject:

streaker69 · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:20 pm Post subject:

Here ya go, first glimpse of a nearly finished plugin. There's a couple more features I'm going to add, but for now it's working.

TheWitness · Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:33 pm Post subject:

Oh that is funny!

cigamit · Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2008 2:33 pm Post subject:

Next up is to take corresponding data from when a Host goes down and from the motion detection to determine whether a User hit the power button on a server.