Peekaboo!

I've set up one of my security cameras to look at my back yard. If you'd like to access it go here:

Camera is off!


Have fun! The link will be valid til sundown.

X

This message was edited Oct 13, 2007 8:07 PM

Cooool...thanks!!!! I can see us all trying to move the camera all different directions at the same time......lol

(waving back)

Yeah .. that might be a problem .. camera wars!

X

Back in May, I set up a webcam on my balcony, to record the growth of my plants. I was initially expecting to grow a mix of morning glories and pole beans, but the MG vines did so well that I never got around to planting beans. Therefore, this is my bean-free BeanCam. It looks pretty ratty now that the vines have started to shrivel up with the coming of fall, but during the summer, it was a nice, full green screen that provided shade for my windows, and privacy from my neighbors. It's been recording still images every 15 minutes since May, which I'll eventually be compiling into some time-lapse clips to show the growth of the plants.

http://www.rthtg.net/beancam/

It isn't as fancy as X's pan-and-tilt camera, and the plants are in sorry shape, but I figured that since we're sharing anyway...


-- Seamus (formerly of the username 'Colderwild')

Nice! I like you idea of using the mgs as a screen.

X

Thanks. You can see down in the photos from earlier in the year that it was much more effective when they were growing well and had leaves all over them. They did a good job of providing shade though, and my electric bill was noticeably lower because I didn't have afternoon sunlight shining directly on my big glass door.

I like the idea of setting up webcams in order to follow the progress of gardens and the like - you get a better idea than just a single photo can provide.


-- Seamus

This camera is actually my computer room camera .. I can access it from any where via the net. It's real time and when I leave town, it's motion activated and captures what's going on and sends it to a file on the net. I actually caught someone breaking into my house once and was lucky enough to access the camera when it was happening .. I called the cops and they arrived before the jerks even left the house. It's not connected to my computer so someone could steal the computer and still be live on camera.

X

Wow. Glad to hear that they caught the creeps.

My time-lapse images are stored on the local machine, but the software also pushes a photo out to a remote server on a regular basis. I work at a satellite uplink facility, and due to the prevailing weather patterns, my apartment usually gets hit by storms before work does. If we're expecting storms, I decrease the update to one image every 5 minutes or so, and we can use it as an "early warning system" of sorts.

I'll occasionally set up a second camera for a little bit of time-lapse work, but when I had to leave my plants in the hands of an untested automated watering system while I went on vacation, I set one up to watch the water valve, and had a number of friends watching the webpage for me, to make sure that nothing bad happened that would need my attention (hose failure, broken valve, etc). I was reasonably sure that everything would be okay (it would turn the water on for a maximum of one minute per hour, and it was over a sink), but it was nice to have that extra peace of mind and the occasional "everything looks fine" from my friends so I didn't have to worry about whether I was flooding out my downstairs neighbors.

Webcams sure are handy.

X that is soooooo cool!! Didn't see any Kitties or weeds...lol! But I do think you need more plants in your yard.


Seamus, luv your MG's!

:) Donna

I'm going slow on the back yard .. creating rooms. My back yard is why I bought the house. After a year of looking, the only houses that had anything resembling a back yard were in a neighborhood that was struggling to get a better name and reputation. It got to a point where I would look at the back yard of a house before even going in to see the house. I wouldn't even go in the house if I didn't like the back yard (drove my real estate agent ditzy). When I saw the backyard of this one I said sold without even going in the house.

Here is a 360 of the back yard when I first bought it.

X

X, where's the camera link...oh, I see, only 'till sundown, darn. Gee, the sun's still shining here though...rats

Joanne Ü

X - I love the amount of land you have in your yard! WOW! Great wide angle view of it! Lots of planting space for endless possibilities! What is the actual size of your yard?

Bummer!!!! I missed your live webcam!! You'll have to do that again sometime so that I can see it! :-) My weekend has been a busy one!

Colderwild/Seamus_tt - Love your webcam and webpage! Very nice job! And I love your MGs! Beautiful!!!

Oh sorry I missed it too...hope you can do it again!

I missed it too!