Filed under: Security, Utilities, Video, Macintosh
Turn your webcam into a security camera with Periscope
by Jay Hathaway Jun 10th 2008 at 12:00PM
Have you ever wondered how you could set your webcam up as a security camera and have the images sent to you somewhere else? Maybe you wanted motion detection or noise detection to turn it on automatically? Or maybe that's just us, and we're a little paranoid. Regardless, Periscope is a tool that lets you do all of those things with your webcam, and more. You can trigger it to start recording in several ways: motion detection, noise detection, via Apple Remote, or with a timer. Once it's on, it'll capture images and save them to disc or send them to a few other places for review. It works with Flickr, e-mail, FTP, iPhoto, and the now-obsolete .mac (presumably an upcoming version will support MobileMe). You can also time-stamp or add your own logo automatically to your pictures.
Even if you're not interested in the security applications of Periscope, you might find it useful for making time-lapse videos. With its ability to capture images at intervals, you could theoretically capture your entire day at your desk if you had the disk space. Although we tested it with a built-in iSight, Periscope should work with other webcams.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
HalfAzn said 3:20PM on 6-10-2008
Anything decent like this with similar features for PC? Preferably free? lol
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kwall said 1:31PM on 6-10-2008
For PC, how about:
http://dorgem.sourceforge.net/
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jeepnautique said 3:20PM on 6-10-2008
i was about to add dorgem also. it just took me a while to remember the name. i used it for a while and it worked quite well for me, but i switched computers and never put it on my new one.
Cybox said 1:26PM on 6-12-2008
Check out Pryme. Excellent free little security camera program. Has some fairly accurate movement detection.
http://www.hilo.dk/pryme
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