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VIDIS:   remote video surveillance application
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Current Version: 1.3
Copyright  by Marc De Meyer (M-Soft - Emdem - MDM) 2005
e-mail:   emdem@bigfoot.com
website:  http://emdem.tripod.com
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VIDIS is a remote video surveillance application using a PC running the Windows operating system and a webcam, digital camera or camcorder connected to the PC through a video capture card or an USB port. A permanent Internet connection (cable, DSL, ...) is needed for full functionality.

VIDIS has a choice of two operating modes: Continual Website Update and Motion Detection.


1) Continual periodic website update:
A picture of the area covered by the camera is periodically uploaded via FTP to a remote server after an interval specified by the user and ranging between 1 minute and 999 minutes (approx. 16.5 hours). This image can be viewed in a web browser from any computer connected to the Internet. The web browser view is also periodically refreshed (selectable between 30 seconds and 10 minutes). Users need to have webspace which is FTP accessible for this option.

This approach avoids unnecessary bandwith usage as the connection to the remote server is limited to short periods at intervals fixed by the user.

The size of the website image and the automatic refresh rate of the web browser can be changed from within the program.


2) Motion Detection:
Images are stored on the local harddisk and, optionally, on the remote server, only when motion is detected. The treshold and sensitivity of the detection are adjustable, as is the interval between consecutive checks.
If the computer is connected to the Internet and the user has webspace with FTP access, the motion detection images are uploaded to the remote server by way of FTP and the user and/or any other person can optionally be notified by email that movement has been detected.
If the computer is connected to the Internet but the user does not have webspace with FTP access, the motion detection images can be sent to his email address as attachments to email messages.

The static motion detection images stored on the local harddisk (or stored on the remote server and downloaded from there) can be "animated", i.e. viewed sequentially with adjustable speed, thus recreating the movement sequence.

Picture files stored on the remote server can be viewed, downloaded or deleted from within the program. The names of these files contain the date and the time of the movement detection.


The camera view is continuously visible in the local monitor window and the program has options to take snapshots (bmp files) or video recordings (avi files) of the displayed scenes. These are stored on the local harddisk.


A setup Wizard helps the user configure the network settings when the program is run for the first time.
