Raspberry Pi Cam + Cisco Spark - Motion Detection Demo

In the previous post, I've setup a Raspberry Pi Surveillance camera with Live streaming capability, and it can also save a video file when motion is detected.

http://pandaeatsbamboo.blogspot.com/2016/07/live-streaming-video-from-raspberry-pi.html

Spark integration is done too so that when motion is detected, a Spark message is posted with video files.  This is how it works:

Live streaming video from the Raspberry Pi with Camera v2

Just got my Raspberry Pi Camera v2, cannot wait to unbox and play with it.


I didn't get a good case to fit in the camera module, but it works.  :)


First of all you can start by taking a picture to make sure your camera is working fine:

raspistill -o image.jpg

To capture your first video, you can use the command raspivid:

raspivid -o video.h264

The video is in raw h.264 format.  It is fine to be played back by my omxplayer on the Raspberry, however if you want most of the other video players to play it, it will be better to convert the file into mp4.

sudo apt-get install gpac
MP4Box -fps 30 -add video.h264 video.mp4

For some application such as "motion", the motion detection and video streaming applications, it needs to recognised the video device as /dev/video0.  It is not the case by default for the Pi Camera.

To enable that, you need to run:

sudo modprobe bcm2835-v4l2

You can also put this command in /etc/rc.local so that the next reboot it will run automatically.

Motion is an open source motion detection and surveillance software which can help you to convert your Raspberry Pi into a home surveillance camera.  To start with, you can get the motion package:

sudo apt-get install motion

A few parameters under motion.conf that you can change, such as:

daemon on

which makes the motion run in background when you start the motion server.

You can also change the resolution in the conf file:
width 1280
height 720

change the following parameter to off so that you can access from host other than localhost:
stream_localhost off
webcontrol_localhost off

You can now access the stream via http::8081


And you will get a bunch of files in your home directory, make sure you have enough storage, if not probably you might need to do it off box to a NAS or whatever it is.  These files are created when motion is detected.



These are the links that I've used to aid my setup, listing all here for your reference:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-as-low-cost-HD-surveillance-camera/?ALLSTEPS
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/raspberry-pi-camera-module/
http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2013/05/capturing-hd-video-with-the-pi-camera-module/

Getting Surveillance Camera Snapshot with Spark Chatbot

Bear with me if it is just too much.  I am developing different use cases with Spark that might be useful for myself.  Yesterday I had posted these two use cases:

Device monitoring:
http://pandaeatsbamboo.blogspot.hk/2016/06/using-spark-to-monitor-device.html

Config backup:
http://pandaeatsbamboo.blogspot.hk/2016/06/using-spark-for-my-routers-and-switches.html

Another use case is I can ask the chatbot to send my home surveillance camera snapshot to me via Spark.  In a lot of time I don't need the live video as it consumes cellular bandwidth.  A snapshot is usually work to get a feeling what my children are doing at home.



Previous use cases:
Network monitoring - http://pandaeatsbamboo.blogspot.com/2016/06/using-spark-to-monitor-device.html
Config backup - http://pandaeatsbamboo.blogspot.com/2016/06/using-spark-for-my-routers-and-switches.html
Energywise demo with bot - http://pandaeatsbamboo.blogspot.com/2016/06/cisco-spark-bot-energywise-demo.html

Snapshot on Sony SNC-RZ30P Camera

Like other surveillance cameras, Sony provides a simple way to take snapshots via HTTP.

Take snapshot:
http://cam_ip/home/Capture.html

Get the picture:
wget http://cam_ip/oneshotimage.jpg

Linksys WVC 200 Snapshots

Linksys WVC200 wireless surveillance camera gives you a way to take snapshots and you can then show or store it.

Take snapshots
http://cam-ip/img/snapshot.cgi?size=640x480
http://cam-ip/img/snapshot.cgi?size=320x240
http://cam-ip/img/snapshot.cgi?size=160x128

Return low quality image
http://cam-ip/img/mobile.htm

Query cam configuration
http://cam-ip/util/query.cgi

Mobile Telepresence on Cisco NERV

Cisco has installed mobile TelePresence on the Network Emergency Response Vehicle.

The Network Emergency Response Vehicle (NERV). Basically, a mobile communications vehicle that can act as a command center for your on-the-ground disaster management, as well as a central processing center for all the communications going on for that effort. Through Cisco's IPICS technology, which allows disparate radio systems to communicate with each other via IP translation, police, who are on one radio system, can talk with fire professionals who are on another radio system, who can talk with the National Guard, who are on another radio system. The NERV also has TelePresence, video surveillance, Wi-Fi, satellite communications, and IP telephony on-board.

In this short video, Bob Browning, Senior Manager of Tactical Operations Support at Cisco, gives us a tour of the NERV's technology and capabilities. This vehicle just returned from the Harris Fire and is exactly why interoperable communications systems are essential to successful disaster response and recovery.