Step one here is to use Camo, which lets you use the incredible camera built into the iPhone as your webcam. You need to be able to type, click, and use your computer as you normally would on calls without your iPhone jiggling around or even falling out of its mount. In order of importance, an iPhone webcam mount should: What makes a good iPhone webcam mount?īefore starting to look into the various iPhone mounts, I had a think about what I was really looking for. It works with desktops and laptops, can be mounted on a variety of surfaces, and it's less than $15. If you don’t have time to look through these options in detail, just get this one: Our pick: SHAWE Gooseneck mount In this guide, I'm going to run through which ones might work for you, and why. I bought just about every type of stand on the market, and even tried constructing some makeshift ones from things I had around the house. So, you're thinking about using your phone or tablet as a webcam. Reincubate isn’t affiliated with any of these products, and doesn’t receive compensation for mentioning them. Once you’ve finished tweaking the app, activate the motion detection and you’re good to go.Disclaimer: I conducted this study independently, simply because I was interested in finding the best mount when using my iPhone as a webcam with Camo.
Next, press Show advanced settings, and you can configure Motion Detector Pro to start up when you send it a specific text message, define particular zones in your camera feed that you want it to monitor, and turn on a stealth mode that closes the app as soon as the phone is touched. You can also specify a phone number or email address to receive the incoming snapshots, but keep in mind that if you use SMS/MMS to send and receive those images, you’ll be billed for them per your wireless service plan contract.
Motion Detector Pro is free in the Android Market, and it’s very simple to set up–just download and open the app, and then press anywhere on the startup screen to enter the Setup menu.įrom there, you can configure your ideal motion detection threshold, which comes in handy for separating the motion that you want to see (burglars, pets doing cute things, roommates eating your snacks) from the noise (trees, shadows, moths, etc.). Use Your Android Smartphone or Tablet as a Wireless Network CameraĪlternatively, you can use a spare Android handset as a wireless network camera, thanks to an app called Motion Detector Pro by MVA. Unfortunately, that operation lies outside the scope of this how-to, and the instructions depend on your network’s specific setup. Note that if you want to access your video feed from outside your home network, you’ll need to delve into your router’s Network Address Translation and port-forwarding features to point incoming traffic toward your iOS gadget. Navigate to the Web interface in your browser of choice, and click View Recorded Images to see how your camera is doing.
Wireless Camera will tell you what the IP is when it starts streaming. From here, you can position your iOS device wherever you like, and it will begin streaming a video feed that you can access in device’s local IP address]. You can check out the surveillance photos for yourself from the Web interface.Open Wireless Camera and tweak the Interval and Maximum Images settings to suit your personal preference (I left them at the default settings) then check Motion Detection and Add Timestamp, and check Enabled at the top to start the recording. (The app will give you that information when you start streaming, so don’t worry about finding it yourself.) Wireless Camera uses iOS’s built-in Web server features to start a website on your local network that you can access by pointing your browser to your gadget’s local IP address. Download the app from the App Store and open it on your iOS device.
G Launch Wireless Camera and configure the Interval and Maximum Images however you like.ot an extra iOS device that you want to repurpose as a wireless network camera? All you need is the Wireless Camera ($2) app, and you’ll be ready to go.
How to Turn Your iOS Gadget Into a Wireless Network Camera With Wireless Camera Here’s how to use your iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, or Android phone/tablet as a wireless network security camera.
In fact, if you have a spare Android or iOS device with a camera, all you need is a cheap app or two to get the same functionality. You don’t have to shell out a bunch of cash for a webcam to monitor your house remotely.