webcam-security

Webcam Security

A Python package for webcam security monitoring with Telegram notifications. This package provides updatedon detection capabilities with configurable monitoring hours and automatic video recording.

Features

• 🎥 Real-time motion detection using webcam
• 📱 Telegram notifications with snapshots and device identification
• ⏰ Configurable monitoring hours (default: 10 PM - 6 AM)
• 🔧 Telegram bot commands for remote configuration
• 🚨 Force monitoring on/off via Telegram
• 🎬 Automatic video recording on motion detection
• 🎵 Audio recording with video (combined MP4 format)
• 🧹 Automatic cleanup of old recordings
• 🖥️ Live preview with monitoring status
• 🚀 Easy-to-use CLI interface
• 🔄 Self-update mechanism
• ⚡ UV-powered for faster builds and dependency management

Telegram Bot Commands

Once the monitoring is running, you can control it remotely via Telegram commands:

Status & Control

• /start - Welcome message and command list
• /status - Show current configuration and monitoring status
• /help - Show detailed help and command reference
• /force_on - Force monitoring ON (ignores time schedule)
• /force_off - Force monitoring OFF (returns to normal schedule)
• /peek - Take manual photo and send to Telegram

Configuration

• /set_hours <start> <end> - Set monitoring hours (24h format)
  • Example: /set_hours 22 6 (10 PM to 6 AM)
  • Example: /set_hours 0 24 (24/7 monitoring)

System

• /update - Check for software updates
• /update_async - Start async update with retry logic (5 attempts)
• /restart_bot - Restart bot polling thread if it stops responding
• /restart - Restart entire application (loads new code after updates)

Usage

Quick Start

• Initialize configuration:

  webcam-security init --bot-token "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN" --chat-id "YOUR_CHAT_ID" --device-id "MyCamera" --media-path "~/my-recordings"
  

• Start monitoring:

  webcam-security start
  

• Control remotely via Telegram:

  • Send /start to your bot for command list
  • Use /force_on to enable monitoring immediately
  • Use /set_hours 22 6 to set monitoring hours
  • Use /restart to restart the application after updates

Device Identification

All media sent to Telegram includes a device identifier:

• If you specify --device-id during init, that name will be used
• Otherwise, the system hostname will be used automatically
• This helps identify which camera sent the alert when you have multiple systems

Media Storage

Recordings and snapshots are stored in a configurable location:

• Default: ~/webcam-security (in your home directory)
• Custom: Use --media-path during init or /set_media_path via Telegram
• Examples:
  • ~/Documents/security - Store in Documents folder
  • /var/security/recordings - Store in system directory
  • ~/Desktop/camera1 - Store on desktop with device name

Application Restart

After updating the software, new features may not be available until the application is restarted:

• CLI: Use webcam-security restart to restart the application
• Telegram: Use /restart command to restart the application
• Manual: Stop the application (Ctrl+C) and run webcam-security start again

Available Commands

• webcam-security init - Initialize configuration
• webcam-security start - Start monitoring
• webcam-security status - Show current configuration
• webcam-security clean - Manually clean old recordings
• webcam-security update - Check for and install updates
• webcam-security self-update - Auto-update and restart
• webcam-security self-update-async - Start async update with retry logic
• webcam-security restart - Restart application to load updated code