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There are a lot of fine webcam (with video!) apps in the Market. But I found none which can be used with just a phone without any computer or wifi connection and placed in your car, weekend home, garage, ... to upload pictures to a server in defined refresh times. So I built this app. It is not finished but good enough for a lot of things.
For easy setup with a nice user interface have a look at sensr.net - they offer camera webspace and the ftp setup with MobileWebCam is very easy. For even more possibilities like gallery-hosting, hardware motion detection and housing have a look at opensmartcam.com ... they even sell or rent complete cameras based on MobileWebCam.
Edit: The app can now also automaticilly email the pics, upload to ftp or simply store them on sdcard. Also a manual mode is new for when you are running around taking pictures to be uploaded to your website/email account on the go with one simple tap.
Dropbox usage also possible now!
Invisible Background mode available now to save power or hide the cam. Autofocus can now be used in and the camera can be remote-controlled by sending SMS commands to your phone.
I will use this with an old phone with broken touch input (but luckily a dpad) and a simple free sim card wich has 30MB data traffic free/month (don't know if providers in other countries offer something like that). So I can have about 20 picture refreshes a day at a location with no WIFI or 3G (and of course no cable/dsl/...). FOR FREE! In the App activity times can be set so no black night views. No WIFI needed, just power to keep the phone running (I wonder how long it will last .
Also I use this with my main phone to quickly show my wife the kids playing on the playground, watch the garden when I am working inside and stuff like that. For this use case an email notification can be sent containing a link for her to view on her phone or pc at work.
Should run on Android 1.5 up (what causes the camera options to be very few and landscape mode only). So you can buy a somewhat broken phone on ebay (speakers not needed, display doesn't have to work well, ...) and have one of the easiest and cheapest webcam setups possible (I think ...
For your personal website webcam you need a php capable server somewhere where the picture can be refreshed. There you have to place the two files (mobilewebcam.php and index.html) attached to this post. Since version 1.3 you can also sent the pictures to an email account or simply store them on sdcard. From version 1.6 on ftp upload is also possible.
This also can be combined with my WebLiveWallpaper App easily and your webcam is then visible on your homescreen background all day.
I have uploaded my webserver files for a simple gallery and timelapse video on a google code project: please let me know if you can improve it!
Most of the sourcecode can now be found at http://code.google.com/p/mobilewebcam-android/ ... so if you need special stuff simply add it yourself and publish your changes! Please help me fix all the bugs and send me a notice if you repaired or improved something. There is so much crappy hacked code in there ...
MobileWebCam
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dngames.mobilewebcam
How to build a housing for your phone with MobileWebCam:
http://www.instructables.com/id/GSM-Android-phone-as-HD-outdoor-webcam/
Edit: version 3.09: Log from inside the app for logs from Android 4.3 on ... (new log permission required for older devices)
Edit: version 3.01-04: Focus mode selection, changed some internals, several crash fixes, zoom autofocus
Edit: version 2.9983: ftp upload for low bandwith/large pictures improved (set filename only after upload finished, skip upload if still busy with last), night time camera settings can be configured in camera screen by toggling to night configuration and then changing camera parameters, show last error in preview screen
Edit: version 2.996: Added some support for Samsung Galaxy Camera (1, 2, NX)
Edit: version 2.990: I restructured a lot internally - now multiple threads for work and upload - hopefully not totally broken! Also waits for gps now, shows more motion detection info, some repairs from reports (config.txt, crash on devices without wifi?, higher default cam delay, ...)
Edit: version 2.98: imprint picture scaling, all transparent colors can be set, sdcard delete old pictures, a little work on gps stuff
Edit: version 2.97: night auto stuff again, sdcard file broadcast to mediascanner, transparent colors can be set, camera deadlock for event trigger photo burst fix
Edit: version 2.96: night auto disable fix, sdcard path, imprint stamp picture downloadable from URL
Edit: version 2.95: night setup, camera open wait time for phone that otherwise produce overexposed pictures in the background modes
Edit: version 2.93: default exposure back to 50 (fix for darker pictures), front cam flip/rotate, possibility for trigger pause time, dropbox batch upload
Edit: version 2.92: fixed crash, made camera effect setting (zoom, exposure, white balance, color effect, scene mode) more interactive, fixed mirrored pictures
Edit: version 2.87: picture burst mode after trigger, moved broadcast receiver mode to event triggers, added event notification to email, added more camera settings (scene modes, color effects), timestamped httppost filename for opensmartcam
Edit: version 2.86: color stuff, alignment, ftp ending fix, background mode switch fix
Edit: version 2.85: shutdown, imprints, galaxy S camera error 0 fix, email trigger
Edit: version 2.82: ftp batch mode, small fixes
Edit: version 2.81: some new config crash fixes fixed, log, backup/restore, keep ftp connection + log frequency
Edit: version 2.76: more webinterface, config help, fullscreen preview option, fix for crash on large screen devices (sorry, I do not own one)
Edit: version 2.73: custom font and typeface added to imprint settings, crash fix for opensmartcam reg error
Edit: version 2.7: Welcome screen, remote control website (see config.zip), 2.71 fixes the original size picture upload if not enough memory
Edit: version 2.64: Nexus 7 frontcam only devices work now
Edit: version 2.63: dropbox authentication method changed to web
Edit: version 2.61: flashlight toggle 2.62 Actionbar for Android > 3.0
Edit: version 2.52: custom picture sizes (+fix from 2.51)
Edit: version 2.37: started to experiment with photo effects like instagram
Edit: version 2.36: webserver (wifi only) now also streams mjpeg, ...
Edit: version 2.3: integrated simple webserver (wifi only), added gps location to make interesting moving cameras, ...
Edit: version 2.2: two different background modes (depends on device, no advanced features working in hidden mode but less power)
Awesome! Thanks for sharing this, check the XDA portal some time this weekend, wrote up this app for the front page
Hey miha:
Though you'd need to tweak this to create random directories or accounts or whatever, I've got a pretty heavy duty Linux server with a fat pipe I'd be willing to let you tie your program into so people don't have to have their own server. Think it over, let me know.
d0ugie said:
Hey miha:
Though you'd need to tweak this to create random directories or accounts or whatever, I've got a pretty heavy duty Linux server with a fat pipe I'd be willing to let you tie your program into so people don't have to have their own server. Think it over, let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds great! Thank you! I already thought about using my little webspace and allow only one refresh a day or so to enable people to try the app but that will be so much better! I will think about the identification/account - may be best the server creates them and my app just asks for a new user - and come back to you when I have got a little more time to put that into the app.
Is there a how to.. i can't get this to work correctly.. i always got "something went wrong"
EDIT: Works.. just my firewall was disabling the connection.
You just brought mine Milestone with no screen(lucily i can control the phone via adb/screencast) back from the closet and in my courtyard! Will test it well
Works pretty well. Got it set up in about 15 minutes on an old G1 and my TDRevolution VPS.
Status Error Copying every time..
am I missing something? permissions?
I am running latest apache and PHP and firewall is allowing connections to port 80
testing on local network
whats wrong?
For those who are having issues, make sure that the web server (Apache) has write permissions to the folder that this is in.
rh387 said:
For those who are having issues, make sure that the web server (Apache) has write permissions to the folder that this is in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that did it
chowned html dir and all good now
works great, both the android part and the server part.
What might be great:
-resolution selection - when Im no wifi it could potentially upload higher resolution
-it should be possible to turn off those popus regarding uploaded picture
Very nice App, just a small thought:
Your php script does not check for any attribute other than if there is a filename on the uploaded file.
So everyone who knows the URL to your "mobilewebcam.php" can upload anything to your server which is a major security flaw.
Just think about those nifty little php-shells to get complete control of it and steal stuff like databases, not to mention illegal stuff fileshared via your server...
All you need for this is a (really) simple html-file with a file-upload form in it which targets your "mobilewebcam.php" file.
Your script should have some filesize-limit and allow no other file formats than *.jpg (also not something like x.jpg.php).
Regards, sceada
PS: Please excuse my mistakes, english isn't my native language
some design thoughts
I had an idea similar to this, just haven't had time to start developing anything... here were some of my design thoughts:
--motion detection to webcam device
--audio detection to webcam device
--accessible via android app (not just a php webpage)
--add notifications to android app for motion/audio detection events
--support for multiple webcam devices
The server requirement seems ok - it allows for a single point of integration for both clients and webcam devices. It could also provide a way around firewalls if the server could be deployed to a public ip.
Thank you for your comments! Will try to answer all in one post:
MuF123 said:
-resolution selection - when Im no wifi it could potentially upload higher resolution
-it should be possible to turn off those popus regarding uploaded picture
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Resolution selection will be added next, yes. May be at first only a checkbox for small/large because I can do that quickly (my time for this app is soo limited - I want to make the other one fine first).
The popups already do not show up when refreshing very fast but yes, a checkbox for that is done faster than typing this so I will add it
sceada said:
Your php script does not check for any attribute other than if there is a filename on the uploaded file.
So everyone who knows the URL to your "mobilewebcam.php" can upload anything to your server which is a major security flaw.
PS: Please excuse my mistakes, english isn't my native language
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I know! You are totally right! That is why I put these "please understand first" texts in the market description. But supplying a more complicated php file will only make understanding of it more difficult. I added a comment to the market desciption now. My php file is only the very basic needed code to get it running. Do you want to make me a better/safer one? I can then link to it in the description! English isn't for me also
actapon said:
--motion detection to webcam device
--audio detection to webcam device
--accessible via android app (not just a php webpage)
--add notifications to android app for motion/audio detection events
--support for multiple webcam devices
The server requirement seems ok - it allows for a single point of integration for both clients and webcam devices. It could also provide a way around firewalls if the server could be deployed to a public ip.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Motion and audio detection would be possible (not too difficulty I think) from preview picture and mic but at the moment I really do not have enough time for that - I would love to!
Remote control also is a feature I would like (I would personally use it for my weekend home cam!) but I didn't come up with an easy way to communicate with the phone.
An Android app to access the webcam IS there: it's my other app (ignoring the old games) WebLiveWallpaper which also contains an App to view stuff like a picture frame and may even get a widget for this later.
The php server posted picture is the only way to make it work on many mobile providers because as far as I know there is no way for the phone to get an easily public accessible ip. Also it is the easiest way to make you webcam visible for more than a mobile bandwidth limited number of viewers.
Thank you for reading,
Michael
Edit: updated apk with larger image size and no messages is in first post
can i use it as streaming ?? please say yes awesome work
Edi: if not streaming then some software that will refresh the jpg every 5 sec or so
Edit2: it tunrs out the script is hanging on the loading part i dont know whats wrong but it isnt reloading as its supposed to be maybe a server issue ?
tarekkkkk said:
can i use it as streaming ?? please say yes awesome work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately I have to say no. Only very fast refresh if you set the refresh time to 0 and your device and server are fast enough to handle all the picture uploads.
I am not sure real streaming could be done with simple php. Maybe MJPG? But then a "constant" connection between server and app would be required which is somehow against the whole idea of this APP to be a lowcost/lowbandwidth mobile solution.
For real streaming I recommend IP Webcam and others from the market (but they will not work with most mobile providers as far as I know).
Edit: Future ideas ... It would be possible with to generate an mjpg with the server php and make it available to the watchers with a time delay - so then you have some kind of from time to time (switch to next mjpg) broken streaming (and require a lot of server power/bandwidth) with the image uploads of a camera like my app. Just an idea I will not implement - at least not now - but someone else could. One part is already done here!
thanks man i hope you add a streaming app that would be epic awesomeness
i tried to set it to 0 but lol its taking pictures but not uploading because the app is meant to take pic and then it will be uploaded it because its 0 sec it cant handle the capture and upload at the same time it needs sync
i will try this app..thank you
everything works fine. I have the ownership of the folder too. it did uploaded the picture
BUT I cant view the picture from both index.html or when I double clicked the pic file. it says I dont have the permission to view this pic but when I check the owner it was me. that is so strange.
defcon.666 said:
it says I dont have the permission to view this pic but when I check the owner it was me. that is so strange.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it possible that you also have to give it everyone view rights to be able to view it in the browser not just yours which the browser doesn't use/know? Or did I get the problem wrong?
What is the exact error message/code?
An incredible web application that allows to take the control of you mobile phone from Wifi/Internet/Usb connection, simply using your web browser and accessing a website. You will have several apps to access different services on your Android device. The software is under development and this is a beta version, so please send me an email for every bug you found, or if you want other features.
Applications:
- Sms: You can send your sms via web interface, just like from your phone. Autocomplete, mass-messages, and other features.
- Contacts: You can see the contacts present on your phone, adding or deleting phone numbers and emails.
- Call Handler: When your phone starts to ring you will see it on your Web Desktop, and you can decide to answer (With speakerphone or headset of your phone), refuse the call or silence the ringer. You can also call a contact using the apposite icon or a phone number.
- Camera: You can see the camera of your phone (this function now works alson on Internet Explorer)
- Remote View: You can see the screen of your device and eventually take screenshot. Needs root permissions.
- Sensors: You can see the values of the sensors of your phone. You will find a compass that shows the orientation of your phone and a Google Maps showing the position based on Network or GPS.
- Clipboard: You can see and set the clipboard of your phone absolutely in real time.
More features are coming, so please stay tuned and give me five stars for this project, if you like.
Please do not use Internet Explorer 9 because of some javascript issues.
Market link
No links?
No links?? No references??
thunderror said:
No links?? No references??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Search the market. I only played with it for a few minutes, but it seems to offer more features than some other similar apps out there.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.MarcelloAlbano.LazyDroidServer
If anyone needs...
I'm going to try and test, thanks!
Very sorry... i'm a new user on xda so i cannot post link until i reach 8 posts .... so thanks for posting ... i'm still doing betatesting but i've other features ready to implement...
Remote view is upside down for me on Dell Streak with StreakDroid. Other than that, it's golden.
yes... on some device frame buffer is rotated of 180 degree... but i've already provided the fix for this on my dev version... i think i will release the update in this week!
Thanks for you reporting!
How do you use this? I've tried connecting to the ip address shown when i run the app.
Is IE needed for remote view to work?
It's all skewed on Firefox 4
skymera said:
Is IE needed for remote view to work?
It's all skewed on Firefox 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont think so. I tried everything on Chrome and it works fine. Did you change the setting from 16-bit to 32-bit? If not, do it
Ie9 and FireFox 4 they doesn't work... they have some issues with css but i hope to fix it very soon... i have an update ready far this week
I read on the comments that someone lose connection when the screen locks. This is a setting of the phone in Wi-fi settings. You have to disable from advanced settings. I'm preparing a faq for this .
Thanks to all for your comments.
The double sms on some phones is going to be fixed (already fixed... just wait the update )
Thanks to all for your feedback.
I've already prepared other web app like a web terminal (yeah... entirely written with a my native library... first experiment ) and a file manager that are ready, but before release i wanna just fix some bug , and make the damned camera working -.-'.
If you think other web app can be useful simply tell me ... i will see what i can do...
I'm still working to make the interface compatible with IE9 and Firefox 4... just give me some time...
Update just released!!!
- Double sms sent (rarely) fixed
- Remote View can be rotated now (some phone need this)
- Call a contact with country code prefix will now work
- Still Speed enhancement
- Another Camera fix (i'm doing some test, but i need your feedback, i've no more 3 phone for testing)
- Added Faq
- Minor Bugfixes (as always
Thanks for all your feedback, they are very useful for me.
I've other web apps ready, but first i want to fix all bugs i can find, so please help me
CloudsITA said:
Update just released!!!
- Double sms sent (rarely) fixed
- Remote View can be rotated now (some phone need this)
- Call a contact with country code prefix will now work
- Still Speed enhancement
- Another Camera fix (i'm doing some test, but i need your feedback, i've no more 3 phone for testing)
- Added Faq
- Minor Bugfixes (as always
Thanks for all your feedback, they are very useful for me.
I've other web apps ready, but first i want to fix all bugs i can find, so please help me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome update. Works like a dream now. I have a feature request though. In remote view, it would be cool to open apps using your mouse. Like for example, you click on Market and the market app opens. And you can scroll through the market and install apps without even having to physically touch your phone. I dont know if it's possible but it sure would be cool
I've already done this... but i've removed because it was too slow... uhm... maybe i can do something with silverlight or java... maybe a java applet...
I forgot to say that both camera and remote view can be used with a driver as a normal Windows Image Acquisition Device... so you can use skype or what you want... you need a driver that you can get here http://dl.filekicker.com/send/file/226163-6E45/IPCameraDS.exe, and this is the homepage http://www.webcamxp.com/home.aspx It's free for personal use.
For Camera you have to set http://<YOUR_IP_ADDRESS>:<YOUR_PORT>/Services/Camera/GetStream
For Remote View you have to set http://<YOUR_IP_ADDRESS>:<YOUR_PORT>/Services/RemoteControl/GetStream
To use this feature you have to disable authentication...
I've relased another update after a day full of work!
- Remote view improvements. Automatic recognition of settings. Now works on all phones.
- Web interface now works with Internet Explorer 9, but is slower and does not support Mjpeg stream (IE doesn't support). Use Chrome if you want full functionally.
- Sms dynamic loading fixed
Contact me for everything!
Can you add a computer notification (ie pop up, sound etc) for the usb connection when you recieve a text or notifications on your phone? Also, answer calls on your phone? Haha just some thoughts.
Hope you make the SMS more streamline. Ajax updates ... display photo ... etc.
Anyway you have intentions to add a File Explorer so we can transfer files into our phone from your web interface?
I'm just working on the File Manager...
Can you explain better what you are saying about sms?
Hi,
My G1 just died on me, so I'm looking for a replacment. I quite fancy the LG E900 but have my doubts and questions about WP7, maybe someone here can help.
1. Does it sync contacts (with photo's) and calendar with gmail (true 2-way sync)
2. Is there an easy way to turn mobile data on/off, via a tile or something on the homescreen (no data plan)
3. I speak Dutch, it's no problem for me the phone is English (for the moment) but is it possible to change the spellcheck to dutch (or disable it)
4. Can I put offline navigation on it?
That's it.
Hope somebody can answer my questions.
1. Heard users complain it doesnt do it flawless. Does for me thoug, but im not a heavy gmail user since live today, and on WP7 rocks.
2. No, but i have setting as a tule and that gives guick access enough.
3. No spell check. But with use it should learn i guess? You can turn spell check off wich i always used my smartphone anyway.
4. No
Best regards
P. Nakazul
Sent from my Omnia 7 using Board Express
1. Yes, it does sync though you can't select which calendar you want to add the event to.
2. Yes, there are some 3rd party tools to do this.
3. You can replace the english dictionary with a custom one. I replaced mine with a spanish dictionary. You can also disable the spell check.
4. Try GMapPro, it's on the apps forum here at xda. It can download the maps for offline viewing.
1. yes
2. no
3. no
4. don't know
I have optimus7, it doesn't good
much better if u buy android
I think WP7 isn't ripe yet to use as a dailey driver, I went back for an Android. Went for a cheap one so that in a year I can choose again wether I want a WP7 or Android.
Got a great deal on a GarminAsus A50 (only 150€), for that kind of money you can't go wrong.
Does anyone know how Chrome to Phone reacts with multiple devices?
I have Chrome to phone nicely working on both home/work laptops and Chrome to Phone on my phone
but now I have a Xoom I'd like to be able to push links to either phone or xoom depending on what I am planning on using... I recently tweeted a link from laptop to pick up on Xoom... when I thought it'd be simplier to C2P it...
Had a quick google and search on the forum but couldn't see any/many people doing it without logging out and logging in and using multiple accounts...
just a simple 'where do you want to send the link' a bit like the Android Market works would be good enough...
Thanks
Have the same question! Got a phone+xoom and unfortunately the one i install chrome-to-phone apk the last is the device that gets "registered". no way to choose the device to which to send to!
bummer!
It sends to both. I can't see a way to change it.
Sent from my phone
I wonder if its something we can bug google to add as a feature in an upcoming update...
Would so love to see something like this - send either to my phone or my tablet: it makes perfect sense! Wonder why nobody has made anything like this?
Apparently more than one extension exists for this function.
Use the correct extension, this allows for selecting a device from all recognised devices in your Google profile:
Google support page:
http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2451559
Chrome to Mobile extension:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/idknbmbdnapjicclomlijcgfpikmndhd
I recently discovered you can access Google Assistant - previously only available for the expensive Pixel phones - on just about any Android v6/7 phone if you temporarily change the language to US English. I've been playing with it, as well as Google Now, which is apparently is set to replace and I have a few questions that perhaps people who've been using/following these apps for longer might be able to answer:
1) is there a way of saying "read this page out loud"?
2) can i translate the current page to another language ("read this page in french")?
3) can i get it it to open the browser (Firefox, in my case) and go to a page ("open Slashdot in Firefox", "Firefox open Slashdot" etc)?
4) can i get it to acknowledge me when i say "ok google" other than the limp little vibrate it does. There's an option to have it unlock the phone with "ok google" but if i'm not looking at the screen, or holding it (so i can feel the quick vibrate) I have no idea if it's picked my voice out of the background noises (say when i'm driving). It would make sense to have it just reply "yes [your nickname]".
5) when is the nickname used, anyway? I've never heard it say it.
6) Is there really no way of typing, instead of speaking, to Google Assistant?
7) I can't get it to play a video from Netflix on my Chromecast enabled TV, despite following the instructions online. It doesn't help that you can't follow them 100% because the options they describe differ between the online help and the Home app. Has anyone got this working?
8) I've set a work address in Google Maps but it's coming up empty in Google Assistant. Home is ok in both locations. They are both ok in Google Now too. What's odd is that it doesn't accept my work address when I type it, despite it being acceptable to Google Maps. This means that although I can enter a "close enough" address for the purpose of navigation, it's never going to allow location based reminders work.
9) Location based reminders don't seem to work anyway. It works for my home address sometimes, but i've never managed to get one set at a shop or train station to fire.
10) The shopping list interface is awful. It takes you to a really basic web page (it reminds me of my first attempt to create a list of items in html!) with no save option, and i now have some checked items I cannot remove. Perhaps if there was a save option I could do so. I actually thought this was a sort of javascript-less fallback option when I first saw it but it's not changed since then so I guess this is it.
For each of the questions above I've tried various ways but come up short. I'm using the latest stock rom for the Sony Xperia Z3, in the uk (the rom is the US one though).