IP WebCam-viewer

Web Viewer and controller for my IP WebCam.

This project allows viewing images from an IP WebCam, as well as controlling its orientation and zoom.

Features:

• Fetches jpeg images from camera
• Controls camera's positioning and zooming: Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ)

Implementation details:

• Uses the Leader Election pattern to allow only one instance to get data from the WebCam and cache it.
  This improves the performance of the application and reduces the load on the camera.

• Images are cached in order to improve performance and reduce internet traffic

• Camera uses Basic Authentication

• WebConfig app settings stores sensitive info in the file settings.secrets, which you will need to create from file settings.secret.SAMPLE and fill it with your values:

  • key="MediaServerUrl" value="http://12.34.56.78" -> your external IP
  • key="MediaServerPort" value="1234" -> your external port, which is forwarded in your local network to camera's IP and port
  • key="MediaServerUsername" value="user_name" -> camera's username
  • key="MediaServerPassword" value="pass_word" -> camera's password

Note for developers:

When running this app first time, if your browser displays this error: Could not find a part of the path '<....>\IpWebCam3\bin\roslyn\csc.exe'
Then run this in the Package Manager Console: Update-Package Microsoft.CodeDom.Providers.DotNetCompilerPlatform -r

ToDos:

User Experience ToDos:

• Hide PTZ controls from non-admin users
• Use sliders instead of arrows for absolute positioning
• Allow using pre-defined preset-points instead of using PTZ controls
• Privacy: avoid broadcasting from certain private areas

Implementation ToDos:

• Use a better caching mechanism
• Increase testing coverage
• Use ONVIF API (besides CGI API)