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Remote Video
Monitoring with the Creative Live! Wireless
Internet Camera
by Douglas Dixon
www.manifest-tech.com
Creative Live! Wireless
Setting Up
Monitoring Video from a Browser
The Camera Center
Remote Access
And More
References
See also:
WebCams for Video Blogging, Conferencing,
and Surveillance
Webcams just make video fun,
with the immediate gratification of
capturing short clips, plus live video
messaging across the Internet. Plus, webcams
can be used for remote monitoring, some even
with motion detection -- to watch for the
arrival of a delivery truck out the front
window, or to catch the cat jumping on the
counter. But you don't necessarily want to
tie up a computer to act as a video server
for a connected webcam, so a better option
for this kind of use is to use a dedicated
Internet camera with a built-in network
interface, like the Creative Live! Wireless.
Creative Live! Wireless
After all, while DV and HDV
camcorders are great for shooting and
editing higher-quality videos, webcams are
much more accessible and much more
affordable for these kinds of dedicated
uses. And there are lots of options for
consumer web cameras like the Creative
WebCams (www.creative.com/products/webcams)
and Logitech QuickCams (www.logitech.com),
with even inexpensive $50 cameras now
offering 640 x 480 video, and $130 cameras
with pan and tilt controls. These products
also include a range of software for motion
detection, fun effects, and even face
tracking.
But webcams are designed to
plug in to a computer, typically with a USB
2.0 connection. The camera pours the video
(and associated audio) down the wire, and
you then need to run software on the
computer to process the data -- converting
formats and displaying the video -- or to
act as a server so you can access the video
from other networked machines. But if your
main use is this kind of remote monitoring,
then you don't want to tie up a computer
doing all this video processing and
resending -- plus, using a dedicated network
camera is more turn-key and reliable than
using a computer and software on a
general-purpose computer.
For continuous remote
monitoring, a better solution is a product
like the Creative Live! Wireless,
introduced in early 2006 for US $149 list (www.creative.com/products/product.asp?product=14276).
This is basically a USB camera attached to a
small network base station, so it can be
freed from being tethered to a computer.
Instead, put the Live! Wireless camera
wherever you need to, set up the wireless
connection (or plug in to an Ethernet
connection), and you can access it from
anywhere on your home network -- or even
configure it for remote access across the
Internet.
Creative has done a great
job of making this camera easy to set up and
easy to access, with wizards to step through
the setup, simple access to the video using
a Web browser, plus its own Camera Center
software to monitor up to four cameras at
the same time.
Plus, Creative has adding
some interesting bonus features, including
e-mail alerts on motion detection, an
auxiliary USB port for remote access to an
external disk drive, and remote access
through your own personal Web address.
The Creative Live! Wireless
camera comes in two parts: the small camera
and the network server box. The camera has
an adjustable focus ring and "multi-attach"
base, so you can stand it by itself, clip it
to a window or a monitor, or install it with
the included wall mount bracket.
The base unit is very light
and quite small (around 4 x 4 1/4 x 1 1/2
inches). The front panel has LEDs to show
when it's connected, and the rear panel has
the wireless antenna, an Ethernet port for a
wired network connection, two USB ports (one
for the camera), and the power connector.
The Live! Wireless is a
breeze to set up. Plug it in (wired) to your
home network, and it connects into the
network through your router (DHCP). Then run
the Creative Internet Camera Setup Wizard
software, which looks around your local
network and finds the camera. You then can
change camera settings including the name
(when working with multiple cameras), time
zone and time, and username and password for
secured access. You also can set up the
camera for access as Wired, Unsecured
Wireless (802.11 b/g), or Secured Wireless
with WEP (Wireless Equivalent Privacy) /
WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access-Pre-Shared
Key) enabled.
Setup Wizard
You can change these
settings later from the Camera Center or Web
interfaces, including the IP address,
wireless network and security keys, network
ports, and video streaming options. There's
also a separate Creative Internet Camera
Diagnostics utility to check the camera
and network operation.
Diagnostics utility
Once the Live! Wireless
camera is live on your local network, you
can connect to it from any computer without
installing any other software. Just fire up
Internet Explorer, enter the camera's IP
address (displayed during setup), and
connect to the built-in Web server in the
base unit. Enter your user name and
password, and the browser opens up the
Creative Live! Wireless server with video
playing in the window (thanks to an ActiveX
control).
Browser access
The camera captures video at
up to 640 x 480 resolution and up to 15
frames per second, and delivers video in
Motion JPEG format for real-time monitoring.
Simply click to switch between a small,
medium, or large video display, and to
adjust the view with Bright, Contrast, and
Color (it has automatic exposure control and
white balance). You also can save the video
settings for future use.
Click Advanced to view and
change the camera settings, and
Administration to change the networking
setup. The Live! Wireless also includes a
firmware upgrade feature.
The Advanced settings also
include a Motion Detection feature that can
send e-mail notifications with a video image
when change is detected in the video. You
can set the e-mail server and address, and
specify the rate at which e-mails are sent.
This is really designed for an area in which
there should be no activity -- Unlike
dedicated surveillance systems, there are no
options to set the sensitivity or specify a
rectangular region to monitor for changes,
and no other notifications other than e-mail
(such as an audio alert or an overlay on the
video).
Beyond Web monitoring, you
can install the Creative Internet Camera
Center software to grab images and
videos, and monitor up to four cameras. The
main Camera Center screen switches between
My Cameras to view the available cameras,
and My Recordings, to manage pictures and
videos.
In My Cameras mode, you can
click to Pause monitoring, Snap Photo to
grab a video frame, or Record a video clip.
Photos are saved in JPEG format and videos
as Windows Media Video (WMV), at medium 320
x 240 resolution.
Then click to switch to My
Recordings mode to view your recorded photos
and video clips. Create provides file
explorer and calendar views, with
thumbnails. You can preview the recordings,
or crop photos and make simple exposure
adjustments. There's also a Video Stitch
tool to make a video from a group of still
photos.
The Camera Center also
provides access to Camera Settings, plus can
launch the Web interface for Advanced
settings. You can set the camera to feed
video in real time with RTP (frames per
second), or at intervals with HTTP (seconds
per frame).
And since the camera is a
network server, you can monitor the video
feed from several different systems at the
same time.
But what about when you are
away from home? Live! Wireless can also be
set up to tunnel through your router so you
can access the video feed via the Internet
-- on a notebook, a PDA, or even a cell
phone (now you know why it requires a user
name and password).
To set up remote access, use
the Internet Camera Setup Wizard to update
the DMZ setting in your router to make the
camera accessible from outside your local
network (or you can do this manually to
create the required opening in your
firewall).
Remote Setup
Then you can create a free
DDNS (Dynamic Domain Name Service) account
on the Creative server, so you can access
your camera from any Web browser using a
convenient name instead of an IP address
(i.e., yourname.creativeddns.com). Up to
four guest accounts then can log in to
access the camera remotely
As an added bonus, the
network base unit for the Live! Wireless has
an extra USB connector that you can use to
share files by plugging in a USB flash drive
or hard drive. To view your files use Access
Files in the Web interface, which opens an
FTP interface to the camera device in
Windows Explorer so you can browse the
directories and drag and drop files.
The Live! Wireless camera
unit also can be used as a dedicated webcam
by connecting it directly to a computer's
USB port and installing the appropriate
driver. However, it does not have a
microphone for audio -- you'll have to use
your sound card.
The Creative Live! Wireless
fits its purpose nicely -- running happily
for extended periods feeding video across
the network, and easy to access just using a
Web browser. You can put it anywhere with
the wireless connection, and also use a
wired connection if available. The lens
focus is adjustable, though a wider-angle
lens would be helpful for monitoring larger
areas.
Creative Live! Wireless
www.creative.com/products/product.asp?product=14276
Creative - Webcams
www.creative.com/products/webcams
Logitech - QuickCams
www.logitech.com
Manifest
Technology®
Copyright 1999-2006,
Douglas
Dixon, All Rights Reserved
Manifest Technology is a registered trademark of Douglas
Dixon
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