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Have you thought about installing a home security system, but hesitated because it's expensive and you don't think that you really need it? You are not alone.

Installing a home security system can be costly, but not installing one could cost you even more. The biggest reason why you should consider is that it offers protection to you and your loved ones, your home, and your treasured possessions.

There are many types of home security systems available in the market today. There are systems specifically designed for surveillance and recording purposes, and there are systems that provide more on detection and reporting. Like any other device, cost varies according to its features, efficiency, accuracy, resolution, form factor, etc. It's hard to choose a system that is right for you off the shelf. That is the reason why most people would prefer to sign contract with home security systems provider that offers customized/tailored fit home security solutions. But not me.

In this blog, I would like to share how to build our own customized home security system using open-source hardware and software, and a USB camera.

There are actually quite a number of posts related to this out there that does the same thing but programmed differently, but I like the way Marc-Olivier Schwartz put it in one of his posts.


Features

We are going to design here a system that has the following basic features:

• Monitors and detects for movements.
• When movement is detected, it will automatically take a snapshot of the event, save it locally, upload it to the cloud, then remove the local copy of the snapshot to optimise your SD card capacity.
• On certain conditions, takes video and streams them as M-JPEG via HTTP locally or send the stream to YouTube so you can view the live streaming anywhere.

Hardware Needed

Required Parts

• 1x Arduino Yun (with power supply)
  
• 1x micro SD Card (at least 1 GB)
  
• 1x USB video class or UVC Camera
  
• 1x PIR Sensor
  
• 1x Pushbutton Switch to trigger and stop video stream
  
• 1x 220Ω 1/4W pull down resistor for the pushbutton switch
  
• Jumper Wires

Optional Parts (used for debug and to display status)

• 1x Tri-color LED
  
• 3x 100Ω 1/4W Resistors
  
• 1x 16x2 Alphanumeric LCD
  
• 10KΩ Potentiometer
  
• Additional jumper wires

Web Service Needed

• Dropbox - Cloud storage service
• Temboo - A layer that acts as an interface between the Dropbox's API and your Yun.
• YouTube - YouTube Live Event to broadcast our video stream live.

Setting up the Hardware

Mount and connect all the parts according to the schematic diagram above, insert the micro SD card, then connect the camera to the USB port of the Yun and power up the board.

For the USB camera, you can refer to this link for the List of USB video class webcams.


Actual Setup

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