[iDriveX]

SubRosaSoft just released a new piece of software called HomeGuardianX 1.0 for Mac OS X, a Beta for Windows and a Beta for the MacOS. This program is awesome, hands down.

In the limited time that I have used it, it's already turned my iSight from a wasted $149 investment, into a useful monitoring system. It allows you to use any web cam, and in my case, my iSight, into a Security Cam. It detects motion on the cam and then can be set to do a number of things. It can capture pictures of the motion and upload them to a webpage for easy viewing, it can capture a picture and FTP them somewhere, or it can even set off any number of annoying alarms. It also has a few useful settings. One of them is the tolerance setting. This was useful for me because I always have some sort of ceiling fan going in the room I was testing it. So I set the tolerance a little higher, it still caught me, or anyone else for that matter, when they walked in the door though. It also has an automatic tolerance level that lets the computer decide what the appropriate level of tolerance is for what you are aiming the cam at.

There are just a few downfalls though. As far as I know, it only supports one video camera per computer. So this cannot actually be used for detection throughout an entire home or even a series of rooms in a home or office. Secondly, there's some minor glitches in the UI of the software. The "Quit" option is under the File Menu and the Application Menu and pressing CMD+Q activates the one under the File Menu which doesn't actually work. You have to manually go up to the Application Menu, drop it down and select the Quit option. Also, if you don't have a web cam plugged in when you first start the program, you can't just plug in a camera, you have to make sure it is quit first and then plug it in. Finally, details and Help with the program is very limited. You can only view the program's in and out's at the website I listed above.

All in all, this is a cool program to play with and it has a free trial to check it out. It's worth downloading if you have a webcam. Unfortunately with it's support for one webcam and inability to actually do home detection in various parts of the home, it's $34.95 price tag is a little steep.

[RoofusPennymore]

I like EvoCam better.

[iDriveX]

What's evoCam do?

[WJMoore]

• Supports multiple cameras simultaneously
• Supports multiple webcam windows, each with independent settings
• Supports virtually any QuickTime-compatible camera or video input device
• Includes built-in web server with Java-based streaming video support
• Supports Rendezvous for publishing your webcam on your local network
• Uploads images via FTP to remote web servers
• Emails images as MIME attachments to your email account
• Saves images locally for use with Web Sharing or other web server software
• Archives all images to timelapse QuickTime movies and/or separate images
• Includes a Java webcam applet to display your webcam image on your web page
• Powerful schedules to control when EvoCam is online
• Unlimited motion sensors for automatic image capture when motion occurs
• Unlimited text captions and clocks using any font, size, style or color
• Unlimited picture badges using any image file, including dynamic images from a URL
• Unlimited QuickTime Effect items
• AppleScript support for control and customization

http://www.evological.com/evocam.html US$20

[RoofusPennymore]

Thanks WL, thought I had included a link in there.

[iDriveX]

Originally posted by WJMoore:

• Supports multiple cameras simultaneously
• Supports multiple webcam windows, each with independent settings
• Supports virtually any QuickTime-compatible camera or video input device
• Includes built-in web server with Java-based streaming video support
• Supports Rendezvous for publishing your webcam on your local network
• Uploads images via FTP to remote web servers
• Emails images as MIME attachments to your email account
• Saves images locally for use with Web Sharing or other web server software
• Archives all images to timelapse QuickTime movies and/or separate images
• Includes a Java webcam applet to display your webcam image on your web page
• Powerful schedules to control when EvoCam is online
• Unlimited motion sensors for automatic image capture when motion occurs
• Unlimited text captions and clocks using any font, size, style or color
• Unlimited picture badges using any image file, including dynamic images from a URL
• Unlimited QuickTime Effect items
• AppleScript support for control and customization

http://www.evological.com/evocam.html US$20

Damn, now that is worth it. Gonna check it out later!