So I’ve determined that there will be 2 parts to this project.

 

1. Be able to take a picture with a USB webcam via command line.

I’ve landed on a program called fswebcam. I found it via a few google searches. I installed it by using the command:

 

$ sudo apt-get install fswebcam 

 

I used the:

 

$ man fswebcam

 

command to “derive” how to use the program, but essentially I made a

 

config file

 

that the program can execute. You can run the program with the above configuration by typing:

 

fswebcam -c /home/user/Pictures/picture.conf //the location of the .conf file should be wherever you put it, so the code after the space after the -c will be different for you. 

 

This will produce an image from your webcam in the location you specified in the picture.conf file.

 

Other info can be found here: http://www.r3uk.com/index.php/home/38-software/100-webcam-capture-using-fswebcam

 

I installed all of this on my server and got the below image. This is what the laptop running this website sees!

 

 

2. Write a python (I’ve decided to go with python because I’ve never used python before, it will be good to learn something new. And because there is already a library for controlling the GPIO pins on the RPi baked into the language.) script that can sense weather or not this sensor‘s alarm pin is pulled low. At that point, the script should then execute the above bash command and take a picture. After that, that photo should be moved somewhere to do something, but I don’t know what that will be yet. It will probably be uploaded to a secure location on my server and then I will have it email me if at the end of the night, something shows up.

http://pypi.python.org/pypi/RPi.GPIO

 

Hello Hello Hello!

//If you just want to see the PiScanner Progress, skip the next 2 blocks

So, you may have noticed an absence of recent posts on this website. This is due to a few factors but the main one is a lack of focus. Not a lack of focus in a multi-tasking sense, but in a sort of literal sense. I’ve got foggy fragments of ideas, but no concrete ideas that are feasible. I think that the introduction of the “Project Execution” prefix in the title of this post (and hopefully all of my other project-based posts) will keep me “responsible” in regard to things I try and undertake.

There will be 5 steps for each project.

1. Declaration
2. Research
3. Documentation
4. Report feasibility [1] (This is where we will learn if the project is possible or not, and if not why.), Share all code [2] Take Lots of pictures [3]
5. Demonstrate / Distribute