Free surveillance cameras software for linux

Digital Camera Protocol is another command-line utility for DC21x cameras, this one looks and works just like "ftp" command. Not written by me, but uses some of my low-level Kodak code from digicam.

Python Traffic Analyzer is a Python base class and sample driver script written to retrieve and manipulate images from the TrafficLand cameras and calculate a numeric value representing the current traffic flow.

PyTrAn, an example driver script, an image collector and an image mask creator are available for download from the link shown at the bottom. To use the PyTrAn package begin by choosing a camera that you wish to analyze, for this example well use the camera captioned above.

We want to construct a mask over the area of the image that we are interested in, namely the road. In this particular example the road takes up the majority of the image but that is not always the case.

We will apply the mask over captured images to fine tune the area over which we are looking for movement. To create the mask we will first need to collect a sequential series of snapshots from the target camera. The image_collector.py script was written for this task:

$ mkdir mask_200003
$ cd mask_200003
$ ../image_collector.py 200003 30
Collecting 30 images...
30

Done.

The script is hard coded to capture images on a 2-second delay. The delay is necessary to ensure the image has changed. I believe 2-seconds to be the absolute minimum. Once complete, 30 images numbered 1 through 30 will be created in the current directory.

We construct a mask from these captured images by creating a diff-image for each sequential image pair and then adding each diff-image together. Naturally, a script was written to automate this task as well:

$ ../mask_maker.py 1 30
Creating a diff for each sequential image pair.
Diffing 29

Creating the initial mask from the first image pair.

Adding the rest of the diffs to the mask.
Masking 29

Done.

A number of .diff files are generated in this process. These files repesent the movement between individual sequence pairs.

The .diff files are simply intermediary files, the important bit is the mask file, which is generated as the sum of all differences.

The mask file may be dirty (as in this case) and require manual cleanup. The basic shape of the road however is clearly visible, evidence that we can with minimal effort automate the mask generation process. Also, this run was conducted at night, day-time images yield better results.

There are a few final steps we need to take before we can use the example PyTrAn driver script. First we need to convert the mask to ASCII (noraw) format:

$ pnmnoraw mask > mask_200003.ascii

Then we need to open an ImageMagick display window and get its X-window-ID using xwininfo. Finally, update camera_id and window_id in pytran_sampling.py and launch the driver:

$ ../pytran_sampling.py
DEBUG> grabbing frame from camera 200003
DEBUG> rotating image: pytran.this > pytran.last
DEBUG> refreshing image in 3 secs
taking a 5 minute sample at various thresholds.
DEBUG> grabbing frame from camera 200003
DEBUG> generating frame diff on pytran.last, pytran.this
DEBUG> displaying image: pytran.diff
DEBUG> converting pytran.diff to ascii
DEBUG> calculating traffic ratio...
ratio[5]: 55%
DEBUG> calculating traffic ratio...
ratio[10]: 52%
...
...
5 minute sample[5]: 67.88
5 minute sample[10]: 42.66
5 minute sample[15]: 30.57
5 minute sample[20]: 23.03
5 minute sample[25]: 18.39
5 minute sample[30]: 14.79
5 minute sample[35]: 12.42
5 minute sample[40]: 10.53
5 minute sample[45]: 9.06
5 minute sample[50]: 7.85

The sampling script will take 5 minute samples at varying color thresholds. The optimal threshold must be manually chosen. Furthermore, you will need to sample the traffic ratios during both heavy and light traffic times to get a good feel for your acceptable range. Also, keep in mind that the traffic ratio value is simply the percent change detected, or in other words the movement detected within the masked region. This means that a completely empty road will register similar values to a road so congested it looks like a parking lot. The time of day can be combined with the traffic ration to determine the logical truth.

With this task implemented and abstracted more complex systems can be built. When I find the time Id like to create a system that will take multiple potential travel routes and times, and during the travel time e-mail the traveler with the best route to take. Another idea I had would be to record the traffic flow values for each camera, for each day and for each half hour interval. Travelers and other interested parties can then analyze traffic patterns to determine the fastest route dependant on date/time.

Frameworks is stop-motion animation frame capture software primarily for Linux. It captures images from a camera and strings them together into an animation.
These still images may then be combined into a single video file using other software. Only video4linux webcams are currently supported; work is being done to add other types of digital cameras including IEEE 1394 camcorders, and USB still cameras. Frameworks is designed to be easily used alongside the GIMP Animation Package (GAP).
Frameworks began as an extension of gqcam, though it no longer shares any code with gqcam. Frameworks is free software (and therefore open source) licensed under the GNU GPL. Without gqcam being free software, Frameworks would not exist.
Main features:
- Frame averaging: The averaging together of multiple frames to reduce random noise in the captured image.
- Frame overlay or onion skinning: Overlaying previous frames ontop of the live display to assist with positioning of objects during animation.
- Continuous preview: Preview the previous few seconds of animation, ending with the live feed from the webcam to assist with object positioning.

HoneyLattice provides a simple honeypot system.

In computer terminology, a honeypot is a trap set to detect, deflect or in some manner counteract attempts at unauthorized use of information systems.

Generally it consists of a computer, data or a network site that appears to be part of a network but which is actually isolated, (un)protected and monitored, and which seems to contain information or a resource that would be of value to attackers. A honeypot that masquerades as an open proxy is known as a sugarcane.

A honeypot is valuable as a surveillance and early-warning tool. While often a computer, a honeypot can take on other forms, such as files or data records, or even unused IP address space. Honeypots should have no production value and hence should not see any legitimate traffic or activity. Whatever they capture can then be surmised as malicious or unauthorized.

One very practical implication of this is that honeypots designed to thwart spam by masquerading as systems of the types abused by spammers to send spam can categorize the material they trap 100% accurately: it is all illicit. A honeypot needs no spam-recognition capability, no filter to separate ordinary e-mail from spam. Ordinary e-mail never comes to a honeypot.

Honeypots can carry risks to a network, and must be handled with care. If they are not properly walled off, an attacker can use them to actually break into a system.

XSane is a graphical scanning frontend. XSane uses the SANE-library to talk to scanners. This means that XSane does not support any scanners itself.
If you have any problems or questions that are related to your scanner then please contact the author of the sane-backend that supports your scanner or for general questions contact the SANE mailinglist. Here you can find out which scanners are supported by the SANE-library.
XSane is designed for acquiring images with scanners (there are other devices like cameras and videodevices supported by SANE, but XSane is not designed for that purpose).
You can scan to file, do a photocopy, create a fax, create and send a mail and start XSane from the GIMP as gimp plug in.
Enhancements:
- Black point compensation was added to the printer setup dialog.
- A PostScript bug was corrected.
- Several bugs in the color ICM profile handling were fixed.

ezOnlineGallery is an online gallery that automatically generates thumbnails.
ezOnlineGallery supports descriptions for each album and picture, searching on descriptions and file names, picture rotation, EXIF support for displaying the time and date images were taken, dynamically generated text overlays for copyright notices, support for uploading Zip archives of images, an easy admin panel, and easy installation.
Main features:
- Add images and have them resized automatically
- Auto-generate thumbnails
- Add description for each album and picture
- Search picture-descriptions or filenames
- Saves "picture-taken"-date/time from most digital-cameras
- Rotate pictures
- Add text dynamically on the pictures
- Easy admin-panel
- Easy installation
- Easy to translate into your own language (English and Norwegian included!)
Enhancements:
- This release handles files with spaces in the filename.
- The hotlinking blocker has been fixed.
- Watermark protection has been improved to make it harder to circumvent.
- A "Photo by" watermark per photo has been added.

This little Java program helps to sort your images from digital cameras. It reads the EXIF-Header of the JPEG-Files an copies the images from the source dir to a centralized target dir sorted by year, month and day.

The files are renamed to represent their capture date and time. So you will have a Image repository sorted by capture date of the images.

Additionally some of the image meta informations will be stored in a database along with the MD5 hash of the image as primary key. SortImages check each image beforce copying if its already in the database. If not, the image will sorted into the appropriate folder.