Category Archives: Viewer for AXIS Camera Companion

Introducing Tiltmatic

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Most security cameras video streams are landscape shaped and mostly phones are held in portrait position. This little mismatch tends to result in Security Camera Mobile apps appearing with shuttering top and bottom of a central video image. Of course you can orientate the phone into landscape for a more well placed image. However doing the landscape orientation manoeuvre is something we naturally resist and it is not easy if you are on the move.

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Most Security Camera apps: Shuttering top and bottom with the image in the middle

That is why we created “Tiltmatic”. Clicking the “Tiltmatic” icon maximises the camera stream to the full height of the phone. Going full height causes the full width of the camera stream not to be displayed. Tiltmatic solves this problem by bringing the rest of the image into view when you tilt the phone left and right. The left and right parts of the image roll into view when you tilt. If you tilt just a little bit the image moves over slowly. If you tilt quickly the image zooms to the far left or right position.

Tiltmatic gives you instant large screen viewing of the central part of the video stream while allowing the whole image to be viewed in a simple tilt interaction. It is a more sympathetic phone shaped solution to a classic design problem.

Tiltmatic

Tiltmatic: Full height security video streams in portrait format – tilt to view left and right.

You can try out “Tiltmatic” in our Viewer for Axis Cams app

Viewer for AXIS Camera Companion – Grid View and Guard Tour feature

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In the lead iOS app “Viewer for AXIS Camera Companion” one of the lesser known but very useful features is Guard Tour.

Guard Tour displays each camera in the “site” for a five seconds then flicks on to the next camera.
When using Guard Tour we recommend that you leave your iPad on never sleep (auto lock) mode.
(Settings/Auto-Lock/Never)

Once in never sleep mode then place the app into Guard Tour you can use the iPad as a simple display for shop monitoring. (Note: When the iPad is in never sleep mode it uses a lot of batteries so its best if you leave it plugged into a mains supply)

Should you want to project to a big screen then Apple TV is a great way of doing that. (We wrote about how to set up an EyeSpyFX app to work with Apple TV projection here)

To get to the Guard Tour feature first go to Grid View then hit the Guard Tour button.

Guard Tour displays each camera in the "SITE" for 5 seconds

Guard Tour displays each camera in the “SITE” for 5 seconds

The Guard Tour option in “Viewer for AXIS Camera Companion” is a basic Guard Tour feature. It is not adjustable, it is fixed to display cameras at 5 second intervals. If you require more advanced Guard Tour options for setting up a Public View Monitor then the app “PVM for AXIS” is a great choice.

Edge storage – more options

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We were setting up our demo unit for IFSEC when we noticed our NETGEAR router has a USB port. We bought a 64GB USB pen drive and set it up as Edge storage for Video Motion Detection on our Viewer for AXIS Cams app. We thought that was pretty cool, it is clear that edge storage is getting easier and more powerful every day. Find out more about the latest update for Viewer for AXIS Cams here or call in for a chat at IFSEC stand B110.

Edge storage USB pen drive

Edge storage USB pen drive

Security Camera Systems Remote Access for Mobile; Port Forwarding or set up a VPN?

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Introduction
Security Camera Systems used to comprise of a Security Guard Viewing Station, a server and the cameras. It was all within the corporate LAN. Then came Mobile apps. When the mobile device is within the LAN access to the Security Camera System is simple. The difficulty arises when the user picks up the device and roams outside the LAN then the app cannot connect anymore and the user is left wondering why.

Open a Port
The reason the App won’t work when it is moved outside the area of the LAN is because remote access is not set up on the Security Camera System. To enable remote access the System Manager must set up port forwarding (http://portforward.com) to an externally addressable IP address. The external IP address port details can be saved in the Mobile App. This is fine and works very well up to a certain limit. If you need to open multiple ports to access more than one camera or more than one server system then opening ports seems more and more burdensome.

Try a VPN
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network) extends a private network across the internet. It allows a computer to send and receive data across the internet as if it was connected directly to the private network and it benefits from the functionality, security and management features of the private network. A VPN is created by establishing a virtual point-to-point connection through the use of various virtual tunnelling protocols or traffic encryption.
A VPN set up with four Cameras using Router based VPN software

From a user perspective, accessing the data on a VPN is exactly the same as if they were connected directly to the private network. VPNs allow employees to connected securely to the companies intranet from outside of the office in order to access data.

Security advantages of a VPN
Public WiFi offers no encryption security to its users and your signals are broadcast for anyone tech savvy to eavesdrop. If you are connected to a public network via a VPN then all of the data that was once easy to intercept is now encrypted and no one else can see it. Much like a firewall protects the data on your computer, a VPN protects your data when you are online.

Downsides:
Speed of performance maybe slower. A VPN encrypts all data that is transferred through it. Encryption is a processor task. The speed of the transfer may be affected if the processor in the VPN device is slow.

VPN and AXIS Camera Companion and a VPN on a NAS box
We decided to try out the VPN software on a NAS box device with a view to using it with AXIS Camera Companion and corresponding Mobile App. Read the full PDF here [FREE]

Make Time-lapse movies using an AXIS Camera and an iPhone App

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We are pleased to launch our Time- Lapse AXIS Camera application.

Use case: You have an AXIS Camera and would like to use it to make Time-lapse movies.

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We made a feature on our iOS app “Viewer for AXIS Cams” to make Time- lapse movies. This feature uses a process called App Injection to load an AXIS Camera application (ACAP) onto an AXIS Cam. Once the Time-lapse ACAP is loaded you can start making time-lapse movies using “Viewer for AXIS Cams”.

A choice of two in app purchases are available: Two cam licence @ $2.99 and Unlimited Cams licence@ $49.99

The status of the icon (a film clapperboard) changes colour according to the status availability of the Time-Lapse App.

A White icon will appear if the option to buy the ACAP is available. (i.e. if we have detected that the camera we are connecting to is capable of supporting ACAP). Red will appear if the time-lapse ACAP app has been purchased and successfully installed but is not currently running. A Green Icon will appear if the time-lapse icon is currently running

The time-lapse interval is adjustable: the range goes: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 35 mins, 1 hr, 24 hr.

Time-Lapse works with all AXIS models that can support AXIS Camera Application Platform  (AXIS maintain a list of ACAP capable cams: http://www.axis.com/techsup/firmware.php)

This Time lapse app is envisaged as a tool for making a summary of the day or week. Time-lapse  summaries can certainly be useful but also on occasion can be very beautiful….it all depends on the camera view.

The finished time-lapse videos are saved into the camera roll of your iOS device (iPhone, iPad or iPOD). Once you have them saved there you can share them via Dropbox.

As the images are uploaded from the camera they are stored in the cloud. Each time-lapse account stores 370 images. Once the 370th image is saved the first is deleted…and so it scrolls on. When a user requests a Time-lapse video from the app the images are sent to the iPhone and compiled by the app as a movie. The user then has the movie for that moment saved on their phone.

Viewer for AXIS Camera Companion – Android

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We are pleased to announce a major update for Viewer for AXIS Camera Companion on Android. This update is an integrated Tablet and Phone app. We have increased compatibility to suit a large range of Android devices.
The App lets you:
– Connect to your AXIS Camera Companion system
– View live and recorded video from your cameras
– Manually start recordings
– Control your PTZ cameras
– Save snapshots and recordings to your device
– Supports Axis Video Encoders such as P7214

Camera Companion _ Android

Viewer for AXIS Camera Companion _ Android

EyeSpyFX – Cognimatics People Counter

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esfx_cognimatics

You can now view Cognimatics True View People Counter using EyeSpyFX iOS mobile app “Viewer for AXIS Cams”.

Use the app to go to a camera that has the Cognimatics True View People Counter installed on it. When you click on the camera you will see the RED Cognimatics icon appear in the feature list. When this icon appears it means that the app has detected the presence of Cognimatics People Counter ACAP app. Follow the link to bring up the Counter statistics. – mobile intelligence!

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App Injection – the Internet of Things

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App Injection occurs when a mobile app is used to negotiate the permissions and set up required when loading an app onto a remote “thing*” – upgrading or changing the function of the “thing”. This circumstance arises in the development of “the internet of things”

Imagine you own a “thing” as part of your portfolio of “internet of things”. You can upgrade or change the function of the “thing” by loading a new app or other software onto the thing. You use a mobile app to control the thing. To can use the mobile app to instigate a process of injecting the new software into the thing. This is called App Injection.

* The “thing” could be a car, a camera, a heating system, a network drive, etc.
appinjection