NOTE: Update available! (0.3) This makes it a LOT easier!

This script allows you to capture Webcam images. You have multiple options to define the directory, filename, auto-numbering, etc.
After grabbing an image it updates the HomeSeer device so it shows a small version of the image. When you click this device-image a new window will open with the full image.

An important command for this script is hs.GetURLImageEx

Script parameters: (with example)
(“Main”,”W1|http://user:[email protected]/snapshot.cgi|FrontDoorbell|html\Camera\FrontDoorbell|yes“)

• HomeSeer device code – “W4“
• Webcam URL for image – “http://<username>:<password>@10.1.1.1/snapshot.cgi“
• Filename – “FrontDoorbell” (.jpg added automatically)
• Directory – “html\Camera\FrontDoorbell”  (\Homeseer 2\html\ added automatically)
• Date/Time? – “yes”
  Do you want to overwrite an existing image or add the date+time to the filename
  example: “Frontdoor_2011-12-27_13-46-05.jpg”

Download
NEW: version 0.3 (27 December 2011) – Moved from 2 scripts to 1 script that runs on the HS server.
OLD:  version 0.2 (24 March 2009) – beta

Installation
Instructions included in the ZIP file (readme.txt). Carefully read the readme.txt and the examples. It’s not the most user-friendly but it is very reliable.

Challenge

One challenge that I ran into: all of my existing webcam captures are numbered. “doorbell00923.jpg”.
The problem: if you FTP these files to a server and FTP them back the file date is gone. So I realized that I want the date + time to be in the file-name. In other words: if something happens date and time information for these files are gone.  How are you going to put the file-created date into the filename for 1000s of images?
Fix: Use an application called stamp.
Before: doorbell00923.jpg (file-created date 27 December 2011, 14:33)
After: doorbell_2011-12-27_14-33-05.jpg
Bonus: Renaming will preserve the date-created/date-modified of the file.

Below you will find screenshots of the settings I used in Stamp to accomplish this. It took quite some testing to get it right.

“Main” tab
“Main” tab custom format
“Filter” tab
“Options” tab

Note: for unknown reasons the time in some renamed files is 1 hour earlier?

My Setup

In my setup I use the following folders

• \Homeseer 2\html\Camera
  Contains webcam images that are updated every 10 minutes.
  These images are overwritten!
  Frontdoor.jpg
  Garden.jpg
  Attic.jpg
  Office.jpg
• \Homeseer 2\html\Camera\XXXXX\
  Contains subfolders for specific camera actions
  These images are saved (each with a different filename containing the date & time)
  \Homeseer 2\html\Camera\FrontdoorOpen\ FrontdoorOpen_<date-time>.jpg
  \Homeseer 2\html\Camera\FrontdoorDoorbell\ FrontdoorDoorbell_<date-time>.jpg
  \Homeseer 2\html\Camera\FrontdoorMotion\ FrontdoorMotion_<date-time>.jpg
  \Homeseer 2\html\Camera\BackdoorOpen\ BackdoorOpen_<date-time>.jpg
  \Homeseer 2\html\Camera\GardendoorOpen\ GardendoorOpen_<date-time>.jpg
  \Homeseer 2\html\Camera\GardenShedOpen\ GardenShedOpen_<date-time>.jpg

Roadmap

• Script that displays multiple captured images based on time, weeknr, monthnr, camera name, capture type.
  • I already have a beta version of this script that runs on your iPhone. It hasn’t reached the maturity level to which I feel comfortable posting it yet.

               Here’s how it can look in Homeseer.

Camera URLs

Linksys WVC-210

More information

• Post announcing the version 0.3 script
• My Gardencam project
• Axis camera server developer info
• Axis camera HTTP API  ( PDF )
• Linksys webcam URLs and Settings  PDF
• Linksys Cisco WVC210 HTTP API
• Linksys Cisco 2300 Series HTTP API