iSpy: Use Webcams For Remote Surveillance And Receive Disturbance Alerts
If you are quite concerned about security of your valuables in your room or need to keep uninvited intruders off your property, then it might sound to be a good idea to have a surveillance system installed in your house or office. A high-end video surveillance setup comes with a hefty price tag that may cost you an arm and a leg, but what if you could get a free alternative application that uses your computer’s webcam to provide a camera security? iSpy is an open source application that uses your webcam and microphone to detect and record movement and sound. The captured media is compressed to a flash video before being made available securely over the web. Being an open source application, it’s been continuously evolving with added features and plugins. It can be setup to run on a single as well as multiple computers simultaneously. The application contains plethora of features such as support for multiple cameras and PCs, detect and record sound, email or SMS alerts when a movement or sound is detected, access and control iSpy remotely, time-lapse recording, email alerts if connection goes offline, password protection for the application and more.
The program comes with an easy to use interface. In main window, you can add different types of cameras and floor plans. To add a device into the application, click Add and then choose your required camera option that includes Local Camera, IP Camera, IP Camera With Wizard, VLC Camera Source, Microphone, VLC Microphone Source, Cameras And Microphones On Other Computers and Floor Plan.
Talking about floor plan, it lets you add custom or stock templates of images, containing a mapping guide to place the monitoring cameras. When you add a camera and microphone, it automatically starts monitoring sound and movement, and captures snapshots after a regular interval, or in case a movement is detected. You can drag and move the camera preview panel anywhere on the application’s camera preview section. The Access Media button lets you see media content that you may have synced with web, mobile device or local storage. You can switch your cameras on or off from within the application. It also enables you to create monitoring schedules, set recording time, and enable/disable the alerts.
When you minimize the application, it automatically starts running in the background. The system tray menu lets you turn surveillance on/off, and change iSPY opacity.
The Settings window allows you to configure numerous spying and application specific options. Under the Options tab, you can change application language and enable/disable automatic updates, run on startup, show balloon tips etc. From YouTube tab, you can set the application to automatically upload the captured media to your YouTube channel.
It works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8. Both 32-bit and 64-bit OS editions are supported.
