Monday, August 24, 2009

ioBridge First Project: Webcam with PIR sensor.

Since I can recollect using the internet (91/92?) I have been doing the following search: "Devices Connected to the Internet" (remember yahoo directory!), and have always been wondering when was my turn to connect "something" to the tubes.

I was finally able to create my own webcam with a Passive Infrared (PIR) sensor.



A couple weeks ago I stumbled in to ioBridge. The minute I saw it I knew I needed it :) . I have
been interested in home automation for while (and even invested on some x10 devices) but I have been always looking for the missing link; internet connectivity.

So this is pretty basic. I have a webcam mounted on a Futaba S3003 servo. I ordered the servo controller smart board as well from ioBridge so all necessary servo communication is done.
I'm using an Airlink 101 wireless webcam (got it at Frys) , and it is really nice that it has a bottom and top standard tripod compatible screw. So all I had to do is get an extra tripod base adaptor that I mounted directly to my servo.


As soon as I got my ioBridge, I ran to radio shack to see what I could find. Sadly Radio Shack does not have the biggest stock of electronic components (at least the one close to my house). But I did manage to find this: a Pir Sensor Module. The voltage required is 3.3-5v, and it has a digital signal output.

Then on friday hackaday.com published this passive infrared (PIR) tutorial and there I found a link to the following project which inspired me to do the same minus the arduino board (which btw I will be getting one soon). And here is where I found out how much ioBridge rocks! I am able to do basically the same using ioBridge actions. This is truly amazing!

I also implemented an iPhone version using the ioBridge iTurn as an example where I can pan the camara depending on my iPhone orientation. Pretty neat!

Using the ioBridge JavaScipt API I was also able to create buttons to move the camera.

You can also see that I have a light control. That implementation is using x10 Firecracker PC serial interface connected to a linux machine and some x10 linux controlling software (BlueLava + Heyu) which I expect to replace soon with an ioBridge x10 smart board.

Video after the break....

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