Need help running USB web cam over large distances

I'm a PHP web developer working with Linux by day, and I tinker with
side projects at home to see if I can get something off the ground. I
need someone to give me advice on a webcam project where I need to use
wired, not wireless, cameras to build a video surveillance arrangement
that can be used in large offices. I got excited about the idea when I
found out that my office paid $30K for their video surveillance system.

The first part of this is the wiring of the video cam. I understand
that USB requires repeater extender things to run it over long
distances, and these may require an AC input. But has anyone
experimented with switching the signal to CAT 5 and then putting it
back onto USB again? Shouldn't it then be able to go longer distances?

Before I start tearing apart a web cam's USB cable in my garage to do
this experiment to see how long the video signal can run with CAT5, I'd
like to know if someone has advice on this.

 

CWatters wrote:

Why not use network based cameras?
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Reviews-68-ProdID-AXIS205.php

More and more, Colin, this makes sense to me and the Axis 205 seems
like the best option out there on the market right now. I just can't
seem to get these cheap USB cameras to do simultaneous video and no one
else does either.

I see it comes with a built-in web server and built-in MPEG display
playback. The question I have now is how can I download Axis 205 data
from the unit to a PC so that it can store this and allow a security
guard to review it backwards in time? Can I use a command-line Linux
tool for that?

 

Darn. I knew there had to be a catch. Any other camera would be out of
my price range for this very inexpensive (but functional) system I'm
trying to build. I was just getting frustrated with simultaneous live
video from multiple USB streams. Looks like I'll have to just do
snapshot downloads, and if I'm going to have to do that, I might as
well use USB cams because they're just functional enough for my needs
and are extremely cheap. You can get a fairly good one for $36 these
days. I've noticed when I look at security packages, they are only
showing the image about every 1 to 3 seconds, which should be good
enough for me.

I guess I can use streamer or gstreamer to grab snapshots from the USB
cams. This creates a PNG which I can then display in a web browser. I
can create a web page which updates a frame every two seconds,
downloading a new PNG. Or, if I can find a Java applet, I can use that
to load the PNG every so many seconds. If anyone can recommend a good,
free Java applet for that, please let me know.

 

googlemike@hotpop.com wrote:
You can get a fairly good one for $36 these

days. I've noticed when I look at security packages, they are only
showing the image about every 1 to 3 seconds, which should be good
enough for me.

Went into a grocery store today and saw MPEG4 cameras plugged into a
quad multiplexer. The images looked about 2 or 3 per second,
simultaneously, on each frame of the quad screen. I can do just as good
by using the Linux "streamer" command-line tool with $25 USB cams and
CAT5 USB extenders, hooking it all through a Linux PHP website. I've
got a demo started today with 2 cams, but I haven't tested the CAT5 USB
extender jacks yet. I'll probably purchase that this week and will do
my 100 foot test to see if the images still work.

I'm going to be on the lookout for a Java applet (or may build one
myself) or Shockwave file that loads a JPEG image every so many seconds
from the web server.

 

CWatters wrote:

You might find cheaper..

Wired network cam $94
Wireless network cam $149

http://kingofgadgets.com/Products/security.html

Turns out that someone has figured out how to do video extraction from
the Axis 205 from Linux command line:

wget -q -m -N -nd -L -l2 -Y off --http-user=root --http-passwd=*****
"http://192.168.29.46/jpg/image.jpg"