[Help Index]

Images :

Image support was added to include still camera images within this program's Monitoring and Alerting facilities.  It supports up to four still image captures, refreshed independently at rates from 1 second to 1 day, from locations anywhere within your computer, network, or the web.  It will display thumbnail size versions within its display area, or you can click on them to bring up full size versions.  You can also request those images using MSN, Web, and you can request an image be sent to an email (requesting from MSN).  The real power however comes in being able to include the images within alerts, showing (potentially) the cause of the alert.

Monitoring  : X10Dispatcher, relying on external programs to capture still images, takes those images and displays them as thumbnail images within its display.  You can use the image slots for whatever you wish, including web resources such as weather radar or satellite feeds.  If your local cameras capture every 5 seconds you can set their X10Dispatch refresh rate to 5 seconds, while weather radar imagery from the web might be refreshed every 30-60 minutes.  

Alerting : You configure X10Dispatcher with the locations of your camera images, and can optionally tie each individual trigger to one of those camera images.  If you have a camera which would show the area which might be associated with a motion sensor, then you would tie that image with the trigger for that sensor.  Conversely, if you have motion sensors with no nearby cameras, you would probably not associate any of your images with that trigger.  You can also optionally set up forced delays to wait for imagery to be refreshed before being dispatched. 

Example : If you have a camera monitoring the front door, and you also have a motion sensor at the front door (or powerflash to the doorbell), then you can associate the image from that camera to trigger(s) tied to those X10 Events.  This means that while you are away, if someone approaches your door or rings the doorbell then the latest image from that camera can be sent to you.  If you have a picturephone, then you might even be able to send it to your picturephone email address.  Throughout the day, your cellphone will send you pictures of any deliveries, solicitors, or neighbors who approach your home. 

Requires third Party Software :  In order to use images within X10dispatch, you need image capturing software.  X10Dispatch works with USB cameras, X10 Cameras (using autostills feature of the iWitness camera plugin), or any other camera which can save camera stills as images to your hard disk. Not all cameras come with good image capturing software, alot are designed to maximize their 'live video' aspect and thus alot of camera software does not include functionality to continuously capture images (overwriting the last).  Therefore, in order to use this software, you may have to either rely on third party programs or purchase a program with good still image capturing and scheduling. 

Worthwhile to use? : X10Dispatcher takes the approach of '(Up to four) Still images gathered every several seconds, but available to me everywhere on my home network, via MSN, Via the Web, Email and in alerting is more useful than 30fps video windows which i rarely monitor anyways'.   Perhaps if only 1 camera fits that description, then you can move just that one camera to X10Dispatcher, providing that camera's imagery the ability to be managed and distributed by X10Dispatcher various means.  Camera technology industry is still split between video and still imagery.  

USB Cams : Current usb cam technology is very inefficient. They generally rely on video as the predominant mechansim for delivery of its still imagery, grabbing stills from a continuous (up to) 30 fps video stream. This continuous 30fps frame buffering takes alot of cpu power.   Having said that i can run a single cam on a micro pc (500mhz energy efficient) capturing 320x200 still every 4 seconds. Faster computers could obviously handle this and more with ease. If you don't already have good image capturing software, you might want to try the free software at http://dorgem.sourceforge.net/ which will repeatly capture from usb cam, and save to file or upload via ftp/http.

Still cameras can capture a beautiful, detailed still image in a about a second (estimate)... entirely processed from the camera itself.  Too bad they are difficult to mount and good 'still' capturing software (which can repeatedly capture on intervals) is usually not provided. Hopefully sometime in the future a good cam will come out with the efficiency and clarity of a digital camera yet allow for mounting like a traditional cam.