User:Touelia/enes100/Weekly Report Project 3

Link to team page.

Write problem/project Goal
The project goal is to design a webcam that will take the attendance of students as they enter the engineering room.

My First Task
My first task will be to learn how to use YAWCAM

I also watched several tutorials on YouTube:

YawCam Tutorial

YawCam Tutorial 2

YawCam Tutorial 3

Summary of actual work over first weekend
This week I setup a webcam using YawCam to take pictures of any motion it detected in a designated area. The camera was able to take pictures, but it took too many pictures. I lowered the tolerance level, but this time it took too few pictures. After testing the tolerance level, I attempted to adjust the zoom setting using YawCam, but all the settings were blacked out. I will need to find a program that will adjust the zoom settings on my Webcam.

Week1 Narrative
This week, I did further testing with the Yawcam by setting up a designated area for the webcam to detect motion, take a picture, and store it in a specific folder. After I set up the folders and basic settings, I began testing the accuracy and speed of the motion detection. By adjusting the tolerance level, I was able to control how often the camera will detect motion. By adjusting the speed, I was able to control how often the camera took a picture. But I was unable to get an optimal setting because I didn't have enough motion traffic to test all the settings. In order to get an optimal tolerance level I will need to set the camera some place where there is a lot of moving traffic. After adjusting the settings, I worked on correcting the zoom, but all the zoom settings were blanked out and I could make any adjustments. I will probably need to find a new program or find a specific program for the webcam.

My Second Task
My second task will be to find a program that can control the zoom function of the webcam. I will also need to test the tolerance level of the webcam in a place where there is a lot of people constantly moving.

Summary of actual work over second weekend
I searched online for a starting point to get the zoom function to work, but after further research the camera itself does not have a zoom function. So in order for the camera to take accurate pictures, it will need to be placed relatively close to its target area.

Week2 Narrative
I searched through YawCam's Forums, but was not able to find the exact settings to control the zoom. YawCam does have a camera control setting, but it seems like the camera I'm using doesn't have any zoom functions. I tried looking for a serial number and manufacturer, but couldn't find anything on the webcam to get me started. Being unable to find the serial number for the webcam, I can only assume that the webcam is fixed at its current zoom. After further research I found the camera at WebCam, but it's only a generic camera without any zoom control. I also searched |&filterName=platform=Windows CNET and found several webcam programs, but many of them were similar to YawCam or I couldn't get them to install because they were outdated.

My Third task
My third task will be to setup the camera in the engineering room to test out the sensitivity and tolerance level of the camera.

Summary of actual work over third weekend
This week I worked on setting up multiple webcams to take pictures from different angles/rooms and uploading them to a single folder.

Week3 Narrative
The webcam I'm using lacks zoom control so I decided to add multiple cameras to be placed in different locations to compensate for the lack on controls on the webcam. I searched online and found iSPY. This program runs similar to YawCam, but it allows the user to setup multiple cameras in different locations. The user is able to view all the cameras at once. After I installed the program, I was only able to get one camera to work. I tried to add a camera manually through the iSPY program, but I kept running into the issue of one camera recording while the others remained blank. I tried running both Yawcam and ispy together, but I ran into the same problem, only one camera would work despite running two separate programs. I can only conclude that this issue is a operating system problem. I checked the iSPY forums and found that I wasn't the only one with the multiple camera issue. I decided to search online and found a tutorial from the makers of iSPY, however it didn't provide any solution to my problem. I also read through the help section and discovered that I can run a webcam on another computer and connect to it through IP.

My Fourth task
I final task is to get two cameras working through IP

Week4 Activities
This week I decided against using iSPY and continued using YawCam. I setup the WebCam in the engineering room and left it on overnight to test if I needed to keep or change the settings on the camera. I checked on the camaera and found that I will need to make some adjustments to get better quality pictures.

Week4 Narrative
I was unable to fix the dual camera issue, so to make better use of my time, I went back to using YawCam. Although I have tested the camera outside of the engineering room, the ultimate goal was to have it working in the classroom. So I setup the webcam on one of the computers near the door in class and left it on overnight to see the what kind of pictures it would take. I came in the next morning and found that the camera took a lot of pictures, but some of pictures didn't have anyone in them, some were blurry, and others only had partial images. To fix the issue I adjusted the settings to take a 5 pictures every 1000ms, improved the image quality, and mounted the camera in a different location.

To mount the camera I used the mount off an unused IR sensor and taped the webcam to one end. I then added USB extensions to connect it to one of the computers near the front of the room. Once all the parts were connected and taped together, I mounted the webcam to the front wall and pointed the webcam down towards the front door. Once the web cam was mounted to the wall I setup the camera to take pictures over the weekend to test the picture quality and location. After the weekend I checked on the outcome and found that YawCam was taking was taking a picture every second, so I turned off the option to take images without motion detect and set YawCam to only take a picture when it detected motion. The camera was able to take good pictures of people, so I'll leave the camera where it is for now.

Complete Project Page
Follow the "project done" format.