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Webcam as motion detector

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 7:10 pm
by Digit
Hi,

I have a ASUS EEE TOP with a webcam built in. I was thinking about using this cam as motion detector for switching the screen off when there's no motion detected for a specific time (and switching back on when there is). Is that a good idea? Has anyone ever done something like that?

Webcam as motion detector

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 9:21 pm
by r_255
Hey, Digit

Great idea..

I dont know if you are familiar to a programm like webcamxp, but that should do the trick... thanx for the idea.


Image

Webcam as motion detector

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 9:44 pm
by Digit
I know WebcamXP, but thanks for the tip :-)

I've been doing some searching the last hour and found some code examples on how to do motion detection. I have built several examples and copied them to the ASUS to try them out. Currently there's one doing motion detection with a frame rate of 7 fps giving 20% load on the CPU. I think those 7 fps could be less, but have to do more testing on that. Nice thing is that all examples have (.NET) source code included so i can build it right into the application i'm going to make for the ASUS and do the monitor switching without external tool. Or, another possibility could be merging an earlier tool, monitors.exe, with this MD tool.

To be continued :-)

Webcam as motion detector

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:55 pm
by r_255
silly me... lol

Thats even better, I would be intrested in such a programm for the mimo screen and i think there are some more....
I guess your solution is also less heavy for atom users.

Webcam as motion detector

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2009 11:47 pm
by Bastiaan
Monitors.exe works very well on the TOP, not om my Vega screen with MSI windbox....
And of course I am also interested. WebcamXP will need the full version at $75 to do motiondetection.

Webcam as motion detector

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 12:40 am
by TANE
Robert,
I'm also using monitors.exe.
Hope you can run it in the background..I see the dos box every time.
Idea of using the camera for auto turn on is great.

I have no camera attached to my screen ..but any usb camera can do the work...is this going to be your second Homeseer plugin...:)

Webcam as motion detector

Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:13 am
by Digit
No not my next plugin :-)
Motion detection (MD) is quite CPU intensive work. And i discovered that lowering frame rate only makes MD worse; it causes that moving ojects in an image are not being recognized as moving objects anymore because the next image is to different from the previous one; so it's not that easy. We'll see...

Webcam as motion detector

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2009 3:42 pm
by Snelvuur
Juist build this : http://blog.joshuamcginnis.com/2009/03/ ... er-thingy/

maybe overkill? :) but its not as cpu intensive..

// Erik (binkey.nl)

Webcam as motion detector

Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 11:33 pm
by Digit
I bought a german C'T magazine this weekend with an article about Arduino microcontroller. Something for the upcoming short days and long nights :-)

<hr noshade size="1"><font size="1">Robert
http://www.hekkers.net <i>Digit's Online Home.</i></font id="size1">

Webcam as motion detector

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:33 pm
by Post-IT
talking about days and nights... maybe an addition would be to let the webcam sense if it is dark or light in the room where it is situated and adjust settings such as dark background or lower brightness settings.