Detect motion (activity)

Using an XO for animal motion detection.

Positioning

Position the XO in a location that will see movement by animals, such as a bird bath, bird nest, or mouse hole. For example, this B1 XO was set in ebook mode and suspended from hooks:

http://dev.laptop.org/~quozl/swallow-nest-one-mounting.jpg

Try to avoid positions with grass or vegetation that may move in the wind, otherwise you'll get pictures of the grass moving.

Software

Not yet packaged for the XO, but a binary package is available, which was built from CVS including the new V4L2 API provided by the XO camera.

• open a root shell on the XO
• download http://dev.laptop.org/~quozl/motion-2007-03-05.tar.bz2

# cd /tmp
# wget http://dev.laptop.org/~quozl/motion-2007-03-05.tar.bz2

• unpack and run

# cd /
# tar xfj /tmp/motion-2007-03-05.tar.bz2
# cd /motion
# ./go

• optionally edit the motion.conf script according to the documentation at http://www.lavrsen.dk/twiki/bin/view/Motion/ConfigFileOptions and then send SIGHUP to the daemon

# vi motion.conf
# killall -HUP motion

• access the webcam view in a web browser, using a URL composed from the IP address or host name, followed by port 8081, for example http://example-xo-1.laptop.org:8081/

Examples

• http://dev.laptop.org/~quozl/2007-04-09/ mice in a house
• http://dev.laptop.org/~quozl/2007-05-15-critter-detection/images.html birds bathing