/clouduvc

A simple video surveillance system based on cloud storage

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Clouduvc

Clouduvc is used to create the simplest video surveillance system based on:

  • Linux powered device, such as Raspberry Pi;
  • webcam;
  • cloud storage, e.g. Google Drive (optional).

How it works:

  • Clouduvc records videos of a fixed length or takes photos and saves them to a local storage (such as an external hard drive). Recording is performed daily at a certain period of time or around the clock.
  • Optionally, the latest files are uploaded to the cloud storage.
  • Old files are removed from the local and the cloud storages according to the configured retention periods.

Dependencies

  • guvcview - video capturing software for UVC devices. Thanks to the built-in automatic camera adjustment function, this is a good solution for webcams without auto brightness and auto contrast support.
  • ffmpeg - guvcview alternative for cameras with built-in auto brightness and auto contrast. Doesn't support camera adjustment, but allows you to control the video compression ratio, achieving better performance on low-end devices.
  • rclone - cloud storage synchronization software. A list of supported services can be found at https://rclone.org/.

Installation

  1. Install dependencies. For Debian based distributions:
$ sudo apt install rclone ffmpeg

or (not preferred)

$ sudo apt install rclone guvcview
  1. Configure rclone (see complete guide at https://rclone.org/docs/):
$ rclone config

Note that rclone also provides a login method for devices without a desktop environment.

  1. Download clouduvc:
$ wget https://github.com/odolgy/clouduvc/archive/master.zip
$ unzip master.zip && rm master.zip && mv clouduvc-master clouduvc
  1. Configure the required parameters in "clouduvc_config.sh" file:
$ cd clouduvc
$ cp clouduvc_config.example.sh clouduvc_config.sh
$ editor clouduvc_config.sh
  1. Run and check that everything works:
$ ./clouduvc_record.sh
  1. You can check output video resolution, fps and other parameters using ffprobe:
$ ffprobe -hide_banner video_file.avi
  1. Configure autorun. Example for distributions with systemd:
$ sudo cp clouduvc.service /etc/systemd/system/
$ sudo editor /etc/systemd/system/clouduvc.service
$ sudo systemctl enable clouduvc.service
  1. Check that everything works:
$ sudo systemctl start clouduvc.service
$ systemctl status clouduvc.service