HTTP Server/E-mail Notifications

[ER]

Hi there,
First of all, I love the product. I was using another program before for security camera monitoring, but Vitamin D makes that program obsolete. The great motion/object detection system, along with the rules-based activity are great features, and the highlight reel allowing quick review of recorded events makes a great feature set. I do have two suggestions, however:

1) The one thing that my previous program had that Vitamin D does not is easy HTTP access to live & recorded footage. I would like the ability to check in on my Vitamin D setup at home from another Web-connected PC/Mac/etc. FTP archival is great, but does not provide a way to access the data using Vitamin D's great interface, significant context to the footage, or a way to skip around to various times easily. An interface similar to the desktop client could be implemented through Java, Flash, or the like. However, a simple HTTP web-page interface would suffice as a rudimentary solution. The advantage to at least having the option of a simpler interface would be access by mobile devices (iPhone).
Of course, an iOS app would be wonderful, but with limited resources I recognize that a less platform-specific implementation may be best. If some hooks were exposed using an HTTP server, outside developers could even take a stab at implementing an interface to show live & recorded video on mobile devices. This would naturally open up a desktop client that could access a remote Vitamin D server, which would actually solve the primary issue in #1 as well.

2) More configuration options for e-mail notification. A delay between e-mail notifications might be nice, so I don't get 25 e-mails when my cat walks around the frame. Additionally, several images in the same e-mail (as in my previous program) might also be nice to identify a moving object. For example, the first frame of an object being identified might only contain an arm or a leg and be unidentifiable in an e-mail.

Thanks for making Vitamin D. I look forward to your response to these suggestions!

[ryan]

Great to hear you're enjoying the product!

More granular control of email responses and additional remote access are common requests and items we've definitely been putting thought into. You mention implementing hooks for outside developers; are you a developer yourself? If so I'd be happy to hear the sort of API functionality you would find useful.

[earthman]

Ryan,

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I saw where you were requesting potential API feedback.

Personally, I would love to see the following API methods :

I have no idea how Vitamin D is implemented, so any return values/parameters are strictly guesses.

GetCameraList() returns list containing int cameraId, string cameraName, bool armed - xml, json, etc.
Arm([int cameraId]) -> arm all if not supplied
DisArm([int cameraId]) -> Same as Arm
GetCameraSnapshot(int cameraId) return byte[] -> jpg? Personally, this is perfect for my needs. I don't need real time frame by frame, and if I did, I could log directly into my IP camera. No need for you to duplicate the functionality. Maybe the GetCameraList method could also return the camera's IP to provide a direct link to the camera's video feed.
GetTriggeredEvents(int cameraId, int recordsPerPage, int page) or maybe GetTriggeredEvents(int cameraId, datetime startDate, datetime endDate) return list containing eventId, eventDate, ruleId, ruleName
GetEventImage(int eventId) return byte[] -> jpg of the triggered event

With those methods, I should be able to satisfy my basic needs. Create either a service or web service that can service requests to display cameras/statuses, arm or disarm the entire system or individual cameras, display a thumbnail of the selected camera, list triggered events as well as display an image of what triggered the event.

With those methods I could then build a simple mobile application to monitor and manage the application.
The only other thing needed then would to have it run as a service.

Is any of that possible in the near term?

Thanks

[ryan]

Thanks much for the feedback. I think those are all reasonable requests for a developer API, definitely similar to thoughts I've had. I'm afraid I can't comment on a timeframe as right now it's obviously just something we're considering. It's been on my wishlist for a while but as a very low priority as it honestly hasn't been much of a user request. It's no fun to work on features nobody will use. Hearing from people like yourself about the things you'd like to do definitely helps both with confirming that it is something people would take advantage of and validating that the sort of things we would think about exposing are what people would want.

[JimBouse]

I think the API would allow us to use VitaminD as a backend for a customized (and often simplified) web-frontend. An API would also have the 'aggregation' feature so that I don't have to port-forward 5 cameras and then have them visible on the internet.

I have a couple of projects that VitaminD would be a perfect fit for if there was an API so that I could build an aggregation web-page so someone could check a handful of cameras at a glance (once again, without having to port-forward and deal with that).

Perhaps, the web-frontend for VitaminD could be built on top of an API. Thus, the API would become a higher priority

Thanks for all the hard work. It is a wonderful product.

[tom_jenkinson]

I realise this thread is quite old now but I also think it would be incredibly useful to have a web interface that I could log into as well. Also if you could make it so that users could be added with different permissions that would be great (even just 'Read-Only' and 'Full Access'). Everything else about the software is awesome. Thanks

[donaldktsang]

Count me in for wanting remote access. HTTP menu would work great. Even some sort of simple camera/date/time HTTP pseudo-directory list would be useful.