Re: [PLUG] PC Camera

[gabriel rosenkoetter <gr@eclipsed.net>]

On Fri, Sep 20, 2002 at 12:57:14AM -0400, Paul wrote:
> Has anyone done something like this?  Use a PC camera connected to an 
> older Linux PC or laptop to take periodic outdoor shots and 
> automatically dial out to send the images up to a Web site?

http://grcam.eclipsed.net/

I don't dial out, but adding that in isn't to complicated if you're
already using your modem for a variety of things.

My camera's on my workstation at work (which you *might* still be
able to get to on port 22, but not on much else); a script that runs
from my .xsession snaps the image, scp's it to the webserver.
Script's attached. Note that this only works (and only works when my
public key is unlocked in an active ssh-agent) because I use SSH's
PKI authentication.

You could probably get even fancier and do something like:

  cqcam -j | ssh <host> \( cd /path/to/grcam \&\& dd of=grcam.jpeg.new \)

... but I'm lazy and don't feel like testing that.

Also see http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/webcam/, which uses a direct
serial link between an Indy running Irix (not something you *ever* want
to have out on the public Internet) and the webserver in question to
dump the image. It's explained a bit on the page, and the Perl
script doing the receiving (started out of inittab, incidentally) is
linked.

-- 
gabriel rosenkoetter
gr@eclipsed.net

Attachment: grcam.sh
Description: Bourne shell script

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