How to use a smartphone as a security camera

One of the functions assumes that most smartphones should have is the webcam, since little that we look to have everything in it. But do not come prepared itself to act as a webcam, and to do so must rely on applications that have emerged from this. So if you want to use your smarphone to make it camera while chatting, or to output images on your web page, do not worry, because in this report we are going to explain how you will do so.

But of course, if we use the mobile as webcam, we can not use it normally. Therefore, in this report what we will do is tell you how you can take advantage of an old smartphone (possibly already have one you do not use) and webcam. We will be able to give you use rather than have it forgotten by a drawer. Ah! and do not forget that besides the use we are going to give as a webcam, you no other also very practical, which is used as a browser for the car, now that Google maps can be downloaded. What had you thought?

Many utilities

When we say we’re going to become a webcam we should not just think that it can be used for internet chat. What if we use it to provide live images on our own site or our blog? We can also give you a more practical use of it, its place as a caretaker of a child in their room, or the entrance of our house, or control of our business… The applications are as many as we want to give you.

Let’s see how you do:

The first step will be to check the functions of the phone network. To do this, we will go to Device settings, then connections and we will enable wifi. The phone will be awarded an IP address and log in, if you had already configured the home network. If not, go to the Wifi settings, within the same paragraph, and select “Add network”, select it and you just have to enter the password in the same way you do when you connect your laptop to a network.

We will ensure that you are connected and that the network is working correctly. To do this, go to the browser and tried with any web page to see if it connects seamlessly and lets you navigate. Well, we already have the assurance that our equipment is in perfect condition and willingness to exert camera. Now what we need is an application that allows you to do so. To do this, we can choose among the many that are in the Google Play Store, the vast majority free.

We have done our tests with one that has served us perfectly and it’s free: Pavel Khlebovich IP webcam. Seek it with the name of the developer also because there are many with names so similar that confuse you. It is one of my highest rated webcam in shop aplciaciones Android.

Download it on installous on the smartphone. You will see that nothing will open the application Nesta displayed on the first screen displays a menu with options throughout. The settings are on the video quality of the images and others, to be discussed later. We will swipe the screen to go to the bottom completely. We see that the last option is “Press Start Server”. We touched on this option and check the entire screen and show the images captured by the rear camera phone.

Tuning the camera

In the next step, what we will do is set our camera phone with our network. To do this, let our computer, we have connected to our home network, and the navigation bar will put the IP address that has the phone now. To know it, we touch on “How do I connect?” We see on the top left of the display of the smartphone.

We see that the computer shows us the options, which are that we have to do that it starts to receive images from the phone, wirelessly, of course. We have selected one whose URL ends in /videofeed, and nothing else open it we are seeing in the computer screen images that our phone-webcam is broadcasting live. Genial! Now we are already happening a thousand uses for it. What do we need to start using it? Well first, obviously, is to decide that we want to use it. In our case, we decided to place it at the entrance to our office to see who gets to it.

Connect the smartphone to the network is very simple. We have only touched on “How do I connect?” and give us to tune the IP from your computer. Now it will try to “install” the phone to make it as an independent camera you can connect, the way we’ve seen, when you want. And so, what we need is having permanent power, since otherwise we will depend on the duration of the battery…

Therefore, we will locate the phone charger, or do we support one, and see where we have an outlet where we can plug it in and leave it installed. To make a “clean” installation, maybe it would be best to go to these media that are used in cars to support mobile, and would ensure that it would be nice subject and could approach it one way or another. The only thing certain is that we have the support itself does not cover the camera lens, which is the main thing.

Placing the phone

Now, a few small details that have large consequences if we do well: we will ensure that the camera does not focus directly to a light, either outdoors or a lamp, for example, in a room. Thus avoid the images come to us unreadable. It is best that we put the camera in a place that has a light from behind, what will do to light the area our smartphone is taking pictures.

We already connect the phone Plug and now we are going to configure some parameters so that everything is perfect. We will go now to that list of configuration parameters that have seen that opened on the first screen with the application. The settings options will allow us to configure all the parameters one by one, to receive the best images possible.

We will be able to establish to our liking the following parameters:

• Resolution
• Photo Resolution
• Quality
• Orientation
• Use the front camera or not
• Limit fps
• Focus mode
• Enable login / password
• Audio Mode
• Notifications
• Avoid off camera with screen

In the first option, as we see, we will check the quality of pictures that we receive, which can be measured with various tests to do. We will also ensure that there will be no interruptions, and mark the option that prevents the camera stops working when the screen is turned off, for example.

Audio Mode will allow us to take us to select sound with the images that we disable it or we get only sound without images.

Disable Notification select what if we want to reach us notifications from other applications that we have on the phone or sms alerts etc..

Prevent Going to Sleep, the next option is going to come in handy, as it will prevent the camera ceases to be active when the screen turns off, which, as we know usually happens every so often.

Once everything’s set, we see that we just created our own security camera system, no technical support without having to buy anything absolutely. Shall we try?

One way to use smartphones that we have been outdated for other things, or maybe have a bump on the cover, or even the display is damaged. The important thing is that work internally, the camera is good and we can connect to our network, either from home, work,…

We encourage you to test the system, since useful, certainly, you are going to find very quickly.