odolgy / clouduvc

A simple video surveillance system based on cloud storage

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

2. 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.

3. Download clouduvc:

$ wget https://github.com/odolgy/clouduvc/archive/master.zip
$ unzip master.zip && rm master.zip && mv clouduvc-master clouduvc

4. Configure the required parameters in "clouduvc_config.sh" file:

$ cd clouduvc
$ cp clouduvc_config.example.sh clouduvc_config.sh
$ editor clouduvc_config.sh

5. Run and check that everything works:

$ ./clouduvc_record.sh

6. You can check output video resolution, fps and other parameters using ffprobe:

$ ffprobe -hide_banner video_file.avi 

7. 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

8. Check that everything works:

$ sudo systemctl start clouduvc.service
$ systemctl status clouduvc.service