Use WebCam to record (Including movement detection)

Question

What Ubuntu software is there to use a webcam as a recording camera (Like a Security System). It NEEDS to detect movement in the room, take pictures and/or record.

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 04 '24 at 22:38

10

You could try using motion (V4L capture program supporting motion detection), a command line only utility.

To install this from the standard repository, execute:

sudo apt install motion

It's been pretty useful for me. Keep in mind motion will not record any audio.

Notes

By default target_dir (defined in /etc/motion/motion.conf) is /var/lib/motion/.
On Debian based systems on the config file you might need to change /usr/etc/motion/ to /etc/motion/. Then restart motion service.

Remove old files with a cron job. To keep last 60 days would be something like:

/usr/bin/find /var/lib/motion/ -mtime +60 -and -type f -and -name "*mkv" -delete

edited Jan 04 '24 at 22:38

Pablo Bianchi

15,657

answered Apr 05 '11 at 18:56

I gave the answer to lukasz but gave you a point because motion is console based and also very simple to use. It can be helpful for remote movement detection and things like that, hold the kids away from the PC at least. – Luis Alvarado Apr 05 '11 at 23:44
On v4.3.2 we need to sudo sh -c "mkdir /var/log/motion && chown motion /var/log/motion" to avoid these errors on service start – Pablo Bianchi Jan 04 '24 at 19:23

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '21 at 18:08

3

ffmpeg

for video only:

ffmpeg -f video4linux2 -s 320x240 -i /dev/video0 out.

for audio and video:

ffmpeg -f oss -i /dev/dsp -f video4linux2 -s 320x240 -i /dev/video0 out.mpg

ZoneMinder surveillance system. Maybe the best and most complex open source tool.

edited Apr 13 '21 at 18:08

Pablo Bianchi

15,657

answered Apr 05 '11 at 18:13

jet

7,274

+1 for the explanation of ffmpeg with video and video+sound. – Luis Alvarado Apr 05 '11 at 23:44
1

How is the provided solutions capture the motion detection, please explain, I tried it and it did not work in motion detection. – Ashish Sharma Aug 28 '13 at 18:22
+1 @AshishSharma how does this do motion detection at all! – Dheeraj Bhaskar Nov 27 '14 at 10:05

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 13 '21 at 18:11

wxCam supports the movement detection.

Last release: 2011-11.

wxCam is a webcam application for linux. It supports video recording (in an avi uncompressed and Xvid format), snapshot taking, and some special commands for philips webcams, so you can also use the program for astronomy purposes. It supports both video4linux 1 and 2 drivers, so it should work on a very large number of devices.

Pablo Bianchi · Answer 4 · 2022-01-27T20:10:16.183

Shinobi (source)

Shinobi is a ZoneMinder alternative.

The Open Source CCTV platform written in Node.JS (Camera Recorder - Security Surveillance Software). From its site:

Records IP Cameras and Local Cameras
Streams by WebSocket
Save to WebM and MP4: Other formats will be added after codec choices are less confusing.
API
- Get videos
- Get monitors
- Change monitor modes : Disabled, Watch, Record
- Embedding streams

Also: Webcamoid is a full featured and multiplatform webcam suite. Check here how to install.

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 25 '17 at 18:53

2

guvcview is the best in the smooth video as if you are a recorder.

sudo apt-get install guvcview

edited Feb 25 '17 at 18:53

Zanna

70,465

answered Apr 05 '11 at 16:47

Jose King

99

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 05 '11 at 16:47

2

Try Cheese, the standard webcam app in Ubuntu.

Its installed by default, go to Applications > Sound & Video

It has recording capabilities (video and sound), and it take snapshots as pictures. But i guess it lacks motion sensor.

answered Apr 05 '11 at 16:47

MestreLion

20,086

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 17 '18 at 13:43

ffmpeg, Cheese, V4L are all great tools - simple to the max - and yet they lack motion detection capability.

If motion detection is a must you should really take a look at ZoneMinder (open source) and/or Xeoma (closed source but has a very simple free mode with motion detector and some notifications).

Use WebCam to record (Including movement detection)

7 Answers7

Notes

Shinobi (source)

Linked