knez / sentinel

Project for funsies

Project Sentinel

A simple open-source camera surveillance system in Python3

Overview

This project implements a simple indoor home security solution using OpenCV library. The app can detect intruders and upload short video footages to the main web dashboard, where users can replay and manage the videos. Optionally, a user has the ability to get notified via email.

The project is split into two entirely separate modules called camera and web-dashboard. Each of those modules are designed to run independently of each other.

Camera module

This module represents the main detection engine responsible for detecting motion, categorising intruders and locating their position on the screen. It also includes video capturing and uploading capabilities.

Installation

Create a new environment venv-camera and activate it

$ cd camera
$ python -m venv venv-camera
$ .\venv-camera\Scripts\Activate.ps1
# alternatively ./venv-camera/bin/activate on Linux

Install all required dependencies

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Optionally, configure the settings.yaml file to your liking

Run the module

$ python detect.py

or alternatively

python detect.py --debug

if you want to see the camera window and more verbose logging

Web-dashboard module

Web dashboard is a single-user webapp where user can manage video footages, see associated metadata, and replay/delete videos. It also allows one to enable/disable the additional email notification alert.

Installation

In a separate terminal window, create a new environment and activate it

$ cd web-dashboard
$ python -m venv venv-dashboard
$ .\venv-dashboard\Scripts\Activate.ps1

Install all required dependencies

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Run the dashboard

$ python run_webserver.py

The dashboard can then be accessed at http://localhost:8080, using the default login credentials admin:admin

Troubleshooting

In the event of the error message saying it can't find the OpenH264 library, put the bundled library openh264-1.8.0-win64.dll in the C:\Windows\System32 folder.