How To Turn Old Cell Phone Into Spy Camera

If the idea of a networked security camera that y'all can remotely view and receive alerts from appeals to y'all (but the $$$ of a commercial model does not), read on as nosotros show yous how to turn older generation Android phones into sophisticated security cameras.

Why Would I Want to Do This?

Well, nosotros hate to presume, but nosotros imagine you opened this tutorial because you accept something you want to keep on eye on. Whether that's your backstairs to lookout for delivered packages, your new ferret cage to see if Mr. Winks really uses the super-deluxe hammock lounge on the top floor, or your kids in the backyard while you lot're in the house tidying up, is your business.

We're only here to assist y'all do it cheaply with old hardware you likely have laying effectually already (or can learn hands off eBay). The Android phone we used for the tutorial, an HTC Hero, can exist picked up off eBay for $20-25—a fraction of the cost of Wi-Fi security cameras, and the phone will offering a radically more customizable user experience.

What Do I Need?

For this tutorial you'll demand the post-obit things:

I Android Telephone with Camera.
Ane charging cable.
One copy of IP Webcam (Free) (for continuous streaming).
One copy of SECuRET SpyCam ($4.l) (for motion-activated capture and alerts).
Access to a Wi-Fi network local to the Android telephone.
(Optional) Remote access to the Wi-Fi network to monitor continuous video feed abroad from home/work.

Why 2 dissimilar camera applications? During our testing nosotros had trouble finding an application that could both stream continuous video in an effective and easy to access mode and consequence motion-detection alerts finer. Rather than have you set a photographic camera arrangement that'southward just kind of mediocre at both tasks, we're highlighting a two prong approach where you tin select the all-time app for your needs and desired level of monitoring.

If you want to get a notice whenever someone, say, drops a bundle off on your porch or opens your back gate, follow forth with the offset portion of our tutorial that details setting up SECuRET SpyCam.

If you want to generate a continuous live stream, like you would if you wanted to be able to continually check in on the results of an experiment or children playing in the backyard, follow forth with the second portion of our tutorial detailing how to fix IP Webcam.

In improver, there are a few things worth noting before nosotros proceed. First, this tutorial is focused entirely on the software side of things. Because each physical telephone and location of installation will be unique, it'south an exercise for the reader to observe their own mounting solution for their Android telephone-turned-security camera. In our testing we used a suction-cup mount intended to mount the phone to a car windshield every bit it worked well to mountain the photographic camera to windows and smooth surfaces.

Second, if you desire to admission your camera from outside the network nosotros recommend doing so in a secure manner. Configuring a VPN is exterior of the scope of today'due south tutorial but we have plenty of great tutorials on How-To Geek including How to Connect to a VPN on Android and How to Setup a VPN Server Using a DD-WRT Router to get you lot started.

Finally, if you are reusing one of your onetime phones we would strongly recommend performing a factory reset on the device and then updating it to the most current version of Android available. Stability is important when deploying a device such as a security camera, so removing any extra applications, freeing upwardly as much retentiveness as possible, and running the nearly recent stable Android release for your device are all important considerations. Refer to the documentation for your specific telephone to reset it and update Android.

Configuring SECuRET SpyCam

In all our tests of Android motility-detection software, SECuRET SpyCam came out ahead in every category. Its motion detection algorithms were the most consistent, it features tons of private settings yous can refine to help information technology piece of work with the widest number of devices, it besides features email and Twitter based notification as well as automated Dropbox-uploading, as well as the ability to capture not only photos simply video segments as well.

First, grab a re-create of SECuRET SpyCam in the Play Store and install information technology to your device—if you're wary of purchasing an app without test driving it kickoff there is a demo copy available here.

After you have installed the application, launch information technology to brainstorm the configuration process:

In the upper right hand corner of the display, next to the aid icon, is the settings carte du jour icon. Click on the settings card. In our testing we constitute that leaving the majority of the default settings solitary was platonic; nevertheless there are several settings that need configuration right out of the gate.

The first of import decision is to decide whether you want the security photographic camera to capture still photos or video segments when triggered. Navigate to Full general –> Motion Capture Mode –> and select either Photo or Video. Although we tested both functions, for the purposes of this tutorial we're configuring the camera for photograph capture.

While still in the General carte du jour, select Photo Settings to configure photo and notification settings.

Hither y'all tin can opt for a color or blackness and white photo, what resolution y'all desire the photos to exist taken in (lower resolution if y'all're simply monitoring the UPS guy coming and going, higher resolution if you hope to capture a license plate or other identifying information), equally well as whether or not your want the photographic camera to capture multiple exposures of each triggered moment (you can set the burst capture mode upward to 5 photos per trigger).

Finally under the Actions department you tin can turn on Email and Twitter notification. While in that location may exist some awarding for live Tweeting your security photographic camera images, we're more than interested in configuring the email service.

Select Email, and then bank check Auto Email Captures, and and so plug in the credentials for a Gmail account. Finally, plug in a delivery accost for the alerts. You can customize the e-mail's Bailiwick/Message lines, simply we found no particular demand to do so.

The adjacent step is to configure Dropbox syncing. Past default all captures are stored on the local device (and emailed to you if take email alerts enabled). We want to go a step farther and sync the captures to Dropbox and then we have a user-friendly fill-in and, should the device itself get taken, we still take the photos. Navigate to Full general –> Dropbox to plug in your Dropbox login information and settings.

First, check Auto Sync Captures, so click Log In to authenticate SECuRET SpyCam with your Dropbox account. The final setting is to select whether you want the Dropbox syncing to occur over Wi-Fi merely or via Wi-Fi and your cellular data plan.

Now that we've configured the basics, it's fourth dimension to test the photographic camera out. Nosotros strongly recommend not messing around with the default settings until you've actually tried out your system—in well-nigh every instance the default settings worked fine for us and required no further tinkering.

Go out back to the master menu and select Built-in Camera and press Start.

Once you press start you'll run into a screen like the one above—the smaller screen in the upper left hand corner is in that location to brandish the motion detection algorithm in action.

Since it'due south a rather dreary, snowy, and gray twenty-four hours outside, we're going to utilize something a piddling more colorful for our exam subjects this afternoon: some African Cichlids. Not only are the Yellow Lab test subjects brightly colored just they're extremely curious fish and we know it won't take long for them to investigate the camera attached to the side of their tank. To start the bodily detection mode tap the screen and then press the play button that appears in the lower bill of fare bar.

It only takes a minute or two of waiting before one of the fish swims over to investigate:

The image is captured, stored to the device, and and so an email warning is issued forth with the file syncing to our Dropbox business relationship. The email alerts are simple but they become the job washed:

That'southward all in that location is to it; once you've done the hard work of configuring the app and positioning your camera, at that place's nothing left to do but bank check in on it periodically to make sure it hasn't fallen off the window or been unplugged.

Configuring IP Webcam

While SECuRET SpyCam was our favorite pick for motion-based capture, information technology has one glaring oversight which prevented it from existence a i-stop-shop for our Android security camera needs: it doesn't include a simple streaming function. If you want a security photographic camera you can continuously monitor (not just see when information technology issues you an alert) you'll need to install a streaming application for that purpose. Fortunately there is a well established, gratis, and robust solution in IP Webcam.

IP Webcam is a perfect tool for turning your Android device into a streaming security camera. You can monitor the video feed (and have photos from the camera) using whatsoever modernistic web browser, use free cam viewers similar IP Cam Viewer to monitor the camera from other Android devices, connect it into Skype, and even stream it correct into media players like VLC.

Before we start actively monitoring the feed, however, let's do some basic configuration (IP Webcam is even easier to setup than SECuRet SpyCam). Showtime, install the application from the Play Shop. One time the application is installed, launch it, and you lot'll be dumped right into the configuration console—seen above.

Much like nosotros left the defaults alone in the previous section of the tutorial, we're going to practise the aforementioned here—once yous take tested the camera you can begin tweaking settings to meet your needs if necessary. Of the few settings nosotros are going to tweak, the first is to scroll downwardly and check Stream on device boot, we want our security camera to plow back on in the upshot that the Android device crashes and restarts.

The second setting worth looking into right abroad is the login/password setting. Since we're the only ones with access to our Wi-Fi network, we opted to make setting up and deploying our device easier by skipping this footstep.

One time y'all've tweaked these basic settings it's time to position your device and start upward the server. Curlicue to the bottom of the configuration panel and click First server.

You'll see a screen like the one higher up—minus the fish of grade, unless you're as well setting up your telephone to monitor an aquarium.

At this point you need the IP address and port number of the server. It's printed on the lesser of the screen (you can besides click How practise I connect? in the upper left hand corner. Navigating to the address provided yields a unproblematic HTML folio like and then:

There you'll find feed links and/or instructions for connecting IP Webcam to a broad variety of viewing sources including streaming information technology to media players, watching it directly in your browser via the Java plugin, and linking information technology to Android-based camera viewing apps. The fastest mode to showtime monitoring the feed is to employ the congenital-in Java view like so:

Information technology's non especially elegant but it displays the video with very fiddling lag. The solution we preferred was to open the video stream in popular video application VLC by running VLC, navigating to Media –> Open Network Stream, and plugging in the playlist link: http://x.10.ten.x:8080/playlist.m3u, where x.ten.x.x is the photographic camera'southward address on the local network:

Watching information technology through VLC made it extremely easy to striking the record button to record a video of annihilation interesting that might crop upwards.

That'due south all there is to it: with IP Webcam once yous have the server up and running on the telephone and you've selected one of the many viewing methods to peek in on your photographic camera, y'all're done.

Accept a nifty thought for repurposing an old Android phone? Want to see more articles about reusing erstwhile hardware? Sound off in the comments with ideas or shoot us an email at tips@howtogeek.com to let the states know.