Surveillance camera using USB Webcam

[krispiekream]

A project that I wanted to do is writing a Labview application that would communicate to the USB Webcam and publishing the application on a secured web page and allowing the users to control Labview applications at home, work and anywhere in the world without having Labview software installed on PC. On the web, the users can control Labview front panel to zoom, do annotations, etc. Like a surveillance camera the USB Webcam will be detecting an object moving, save images from when motion was detected, trigger an alarm to alert. 

I was wondering if someone can help me with this.

I have Labview Vision and I can get continuous image from the USB Webcam. 

I don't know where to find information on detecting an object moving. 

Can someone please help me on that?

[Kristen_K. · Accepted solution]

Hi krispiekream!

I assume your USB camera has the capability to zoom through programmatic control? If it does you should be able to control the camera using a Remote Front Panels, which require the LabVIEW Run-Time Engine. Here is a tutorial on developing Remote Front Panel LV Applications: http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3277 . 

As far as detecting a moving object, you could take two images and subtract them to determine if there was movement within the frame. 

I hope this helps!

Kristen H.

[krispiekream]

"As far as detecting a moving object, you could take two images and subtract them to determine if there was movement within the frame. "

Thank you kristen for your help! I have learned how to remotely control labview and gotten that taken care of.

I am able to zoom in and out.

I am just a little confused about detecting moving object. I haven't tried it myself. but lets say that i am looking at the door...if it is open...then it will set an alarm..

how would Labview knows that i am look at the door?

is there any examples I can see so that i can get a better picture of what's going on..

[Kristen_K.]

Hi krispiekream!

Here is some code that I have put together.  It should provide a good starting place for you at least.  You will need to change the IMAQ VIs to USB IMAQ VIs.  Let me know if you have any questions about the VI.  Enjoy!

Kristen H.

[krispiekream]

sorry about the delay. i finally get a chance to go back and take a look at my project.

sorry..i have been busy.

i am using labview 8.5 and i dont have the ability to look at your code. its 8.6 and higher. do you think you can save to a previous version for me?

thanks

[Kristen_K.]

Hi krispiekream!

Not a problem.  Here is the 8.5 version.

Kristen H.

[krispiekream]

thank you...

i have more questions.

my professor think that my project is too easy.

what can i do to advance it or to challenged it?

i told him that we can have the usb web cam scan the bar code. 

can it really do that?

so, if it can. Can we display it out to a microcontroller using labview? like an AVR microcontroller?

I dont know if we can do that or not, maybe you have a more expertise on this issue?

thanks again.

[Kristen_K.]

Hi krispiekream!

Yes, you can use a usb camera to read a bar code.  There is an example in the NI Example Finder   (Toolkits and Modules >> Vision >> Applications >> Barcode Example.vi.  This should get you started.  You will have to adapt the code to use the image acquired from the camera instead of a file. 

What do you mean by "display it out to a microcontroller"?  

Kristen H.

[krispiekream]

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What do you mean by "display it out to a microcontroller"?

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My professor said that since we have an input...which is the usb camera...

we need an output hardware...

so maybe i can build a board that would display the BAR CODE NUMBER on an LED or something?

is that possible?

how would i go about doing that..

my teacher said that i can get a microcontroller and display the image there..but he doesnt know if LABVIEW supports microcontroller since he doesnt use Labview..he doesn't know..but he wants to know if i can do something like that..

[krispiekream]

i am missing this vision\driver\imaqhl.ll

i can't get some of the subvi in there without having that driver. 

how do i get that?