Webcam Security
I was asked to take a look over at HomeCamera and write a little review of the services. Since I have been into Home Automation and dabbled a little into security I thought it would be pretty cool to take a look and see what they have to offer.
The landing page itself is nice and clean. They give a little description and claim that HomeCamera will work with any home camera or webcam hooked to your computer and you can view the video on any PDA or mobile phone. I have a Logitech Quickcam setup and of course have a cell phone so I figured I would set it up and see what it can do.
During signup you have a couple of options to select aside from giving them your name, email, timezone and phone number. There are two motion detection settings that you are able to select and those are "send to my email" and "send to my mobile phone". HomeCamera supports motion detection and if you are wanting to use this for security purposes then both are a good idea. I selected "send to my email" for the purposes of writing this. Upon selecting the user agreement they sent me an email with the login link and something called "Current Mobile Credits", whatever those are. We shall see shortly I am sure. The next page is the link to download the software. It's a small download for an app, weighing in at about three and a half megs. Shouldn't take long at all, even if you are on dial-up.
The setup of the software was pretty painless. The first order of business after running the app is to add a camera. It asks for the email and password that you registered with and then searches for the camera. Of course I also have TV tuners in my system so it found those as well. I picked my settings on this screen and clicked ok...
The landing page itself is nice and clean. They give a little description and claim that HomeCamera will work with any home camera or webcam hooked to your computer and you can view the video on any PDA or mobile phone. I have a Logitech Quickcam setup and of course have a cell phone so I figured I would set it up and see what it can do.
During signup you have a couple of options to select aside from giving them your name, email, timezone and phone number. There are two motion detection settings that you are able to select and those are "send to my email" and "send to my mobile phone". HomeCamera supports motion detection and if you are wanting to use this for security purposes then both are a good idea. I selected "send to my email" for the purposes of writing this. Upon selecting the user agreement they sent me an email with the login link and something called "Current Mobile Credits", whatever those are. We shall see shortly I am sure. The next page is the link to download the software. It's a small download for an app, weighing in at about three and a half megs. Shouldn't take long at all, even if you are on dial-up.
The setup of the software was pretty painless. The first order of business after running the app is to add a camera. It asks for the email and password that you registered with and then searches for the camera. Of course I also have TV tuners in my system so it found those as well. I picked my settings on this screen and clicked ok...
...at which point I was brought into the main interface. OK, so it's running, now what do I do? Aha...there is a link back on the download page which I had minimized to "Login and Start Using HomeCamera.
One thing they might want to consider doing is to open a new tab in your browser when the program is launched, or at least make it an option so that people will know what to do next.
Very nice. Once logged in my camera shows up and I was able to view the video (in Quicktime format).
There is an option to send to my mobile phone as well, so I had to try that out and see how well it worked. I was hoping to actually be able to browse to a mobile page and check it out on demand but that may be an option that will come along later. I also had it email the video to myself as well. The email came right away with the attached video but I am still waiting a few minutes later for it to arrive on my cell phone. That could also be issues with Verizon.
Overall it's a pretty cool product, particularly since it's FREE. I have a plugin that I am able to use with my home automation software that allows me to view webcam images and captures over the internet and it will also email me when motion is detected but I can't get the video or images emailed to me with it like I can with HomeCamera. With the fact that I am driving up to Beaufort, South Carolina for my son's boot camp graduation in two days think I will leave this up and running to see how I fare with it.
Security is a pretty big issue for everyone and home security systems can be expensive. This is one more addition to my home-brew system that will come in very handy over the next few months.
One thing they might want to consider doing is to open a new tab in your browser when the program is launched, or at least make it an option so that people will know what to do next. Very nice. Once logged in my camera shows up and I was able to view the video (in Quicktime format).
There is an option to send to my mobile phone as well, so I had to try that out and see how well it worked. I was hoping to actually be able to browse to a mobile page and check it out on demand but that may be an option that will come along later. I also had it email the video to myself as well. The email came right away with the attached video but I am still waiting a few minutes later for it to arrive on my cell phone. That could also be issues with Verizon.
Overall it's a pretty cool product, particularly since it's FREE. I have a plugin that I am able to use with my home automation software that allows me to view webcam images and captures over the internet and it will also email me when motion is detected but I can't get the video or images emailed to me with it like I can with HomeCamera. With the fact that I am driving up to Beaufort, South Carolina for my son's boot camp graduation in two days think I will leave this up and running to see how I fare with it.
Security is a pretty big issue for everyone and home security systems can be expensive. This is one more addition to my home-brew system that will come in very handy over the next few months.
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Richard,
I found your blog while looking through the posts put up by folks who "took the HomeCamera opportunity".
First, I think this is a fantastic review, thanks.
The idea of automatically launching the browser is good - especially for first-time users. We'll try and put this in as we go along.
We'll also try and do a better job of explaining what mobile credits are (1 mobile credit = 1 mobile access; once the 25 free credits run out, users can buy additional credits at close-to-cost (and, in some cases, below our cost) at $5.50 for 100 credits). Speaking of which, did you ever receive the mobile message? If not, it's most likely a Verizon issue - US carriers have some of the most restrictive networks on the planet... worse, different cities on the same telco sometimes follow different practices!
Anyway, thanks for a balanced review - we appreciate the work you've put in and hope you'll continue to use and recommend the service.
Cheers,
- Varun.