MyCamAnywhere is not a video conferencing solution it is like FaceTime a point to point secure communication system initially targeted for the IPhone/Ipad that can use either the internal front camera of the iPhone or easily obtainable external IP cameras like those used in security systems. The system has the ability to trigger events including switching between multiplexed cameras on the same subnet based upon proximity to the camera . And to embed rich technical content such as biometrics data into the encoded streams. The system also has recording and snapshot capabilities. Inbound/outbound streams may be accessible via the mobile device or smart TV.
We had considerable interest in our bandwidth austerity post, seems that there are a lot of camera manufactures i.e. Dropcam out there that ignore their customers request and are moving to provide only cloud based services. And if they do allow local lan well then you lose out on cloud recording etc. What we will show is a way you can have your local lan and cloud services together and NOT require a external device like our hub. Hint the first local device that connects to the same camera becomes a p2p client for the other devices and forwards a bandwidth friendly version of the live stream to the cloud server
Within the next few weeks we hope to have a short of demonstration of our hub technology using an android tablet. The setup for the rig is going to be something like this, we are going to purchase 3 or 4 Foscam or DropCam cameras, we will network these locally, the cameras have rtsp servers with ip's that can be set to local host via web configuration software. We than plan to connect each of these to the hub and the hub than connects to our cloud server. Our cloud server is Mac based so its fairly easy to set up a proxy that will record the stream from the server.
We Plan to use our facebook developer group as testers. If you haven't joined feel free to join now.
Here's a quote taken directly from the page of a leading security provider.
"Product X is a cloud-based Wi-Fi video monitoring service with free live streaming, two-way talk and remote viewing that makes it easy to stay connected with places, people and pets, no matter where you are."
The key here are the words cloud-based this means that any video sent by the camera goes directly to the cloud so even though you may have one or more camera’s in your home connected to the blazing fast router you brought your limited by whatever upload speed your service provider is allowing you at that time. Worse if you have a provider such as ATT Uverse or Sprint your going to quickly exceed the pathetic monthly quota they provide.
Of the available cameras the better ones allow you to configure the camera to work over your local network but they warn using it this way you lose the cloud based recording and snapshot service they provide. Its a compromise between getting those nasty bandwidth exceeded letters from your service provider and the pristine 30fps video that your router is capable of handling.
Depending on your network you may also lose the ability to access your camera from away from your home, again the solution from some security services are compromises, pay for a sticky IP address from your service provider $$$, subscribe to a dynamic DNS service that periodically sends your IP to a server and updates the public DNS records . Or even deal with some poorly implemented schemes for accessing your network using NAT transversal.
There must be a better way. And thats what the MyCamAnywhere Hub is about.
The hub will be a small device that is connected to your router, Your security cameras will connect locally over your LAN to the hub using wifi or bluetooth. Internally from your smart phone you will be able to connect locally to any of your cameras at the fastest speed your router can handle. The hub acts as a proxy, your phone connects locally when you are in range of a compatible hub, the connection is from the phone to the hub, the hub is always connected to the cloud but NOT continuously sending video and eating through your available bandwidth quota . Only when a remote device is connected to the hub will the hub concurrently send the stream from the camera to the hub to the cloud. The streaming rate locally is unaffected, the outgoing feed to the cloud is dependent on the available bandwidth. Anything sent from camera to phone can be recorded on the cloud. Audio can be sent from the camera if this is a security type solution or the audio can come from the smart phone to the hub and be mixed with the video from the camera with perfect synchronization.
In standalone personal communication and medical applications the HUB can be simulated directly on the smart phone, the phone acts as a sort of mini-hub.