There are differences in application design between surveillance cameras and computer cameras, so some settings must be made before using computer cameras as surveillance cameras.
Shooting distance: The camera lens has a focus adjustment ring, which can be used to focus at a specific distance. When using a computer surveillance camera for video chat, the focal length is generally 0.5 to 1 meter. When using a computer camera for home video surveillance, the distance between the camera and the shooting environment may reach 3 meters to 6 meters, so readjust the focus.
Shooting pixels: The pixel value of computer surveillance cameras can reach 1.3 million to 3 million, but when used for video chat, due to network bandwidth limitations, the pixels used are all set at about 300,000. In order to capture all details clearly, video surveillance must use the highest possible shooting resolution. Of course, the higher the shooting resolution, the more storage space is required. The monitoring range of general video surveillance is within 10 meters, and the resolution of 1.3 million pixels can meet the requirements.
Computer monitoring camera brightness and contrast: In order to shoot clearly, in addition to accurate focus and appropriate pixels, the brightness and contrast of the camera are also very important. When using the camera, you must manually adjust the light source and lock the brightness and contrast of the shooting position. The indoor lighting environment is usually uneven, and the user has to manually adjust the brightness according to the actual shooting environment.
Computer surveillance camera installation location: A good surveillance location will bring convenience to future surveillance. Home users can adopt a concealed installation method and hide the small computer camera above the living room TV cabinet or other higher locations, so that you can get better results. Good shooting angle while avoiding being detected.
Build a video surveillance system
Step 1: Determine the video transmission channel
Since the image of the video surveillance server needs to be transmitted through the network, the video surveillance server must be able to connect to the Internet. Before this, in order to access the video surveillance server normally, a problem must be solved-how to access the video surveillance server from the external network. Generally speaking, there are two ways to connect to the monitoring server. One is to dial-up the Internet directly from the monitoring server computer. This networking method is relatively simple. As long as the monitoring server runs successfully, dial-up Internet access, and then run dynamic domain name resolution software and video surveillance software. The other method is mainly for port mapping for computers that use the router to access the Internet. If you want to access from the external network, you must assign an external network IP address to the internal network. Therefore, it is necessary to apply for dynamic domain name resolution service.
Step 2: Selection of monitoring equipment
After setting the network parameters, set up a video surveillance server. The video surveillance server is a computer with surveillance cameras and internet access. Since it needs to be turned on for a long time, the computer is required to have high stability and low power consumption. The video surveillance server I placed in the living room is a small motherboard integrated with Atom CPU and equipped with a silent fan. In terms of software, you can use Webcamxp as a video surveillance software client.
Step 3: Determine the audio/video source
In order to allow users to access the video surveillance camera, it is also necessary to set the video and audio monitoring sources of the client software. There are two categories in the "tools/options" of the "sources monitor" tab of the video surveillance software, which are audio Source (audio source) and video source (video source), you can set the corresponding camera device and microphone device here.
Step 4: Establish an external monitoring channel
Since the user wants to view the surveillance video on the video surveillance server through the network, the video and audio obtained by the client software must be released to the outside world. It can be set through the "internal http server" option in the "web/broadcast" tab of the client software.
If you are directly connected to the Internet, you can use the "Search WAN IP" option and check the "Detect WAN IP at startup" option, so that the client software will automatically obtain the public network IP of the video surveillance server. If you use a broadband router for networking, enter the intranet IP address manually assigned to the video surveillance server in the "Internal IP Address" of the software, and turn off the "Detect WAN IP at startup" option. After completing these settings, click the WEB Server button to start the external broadcast function.
After the above settings, as long as you enter the domain name you applied for on any computer that is connected to the Internet, you can see the situation at home
