Own developments for video analysis + existing DVRs = ?

Question

CCTV

There is an interest to continue their entertainment with image analysis algorithms. Prior to that, I worked with one camera connected to a PC via Firewire. Accordingly, he could write programs both in Windows and in Linux.

Maybe someone knows whether it is relatively easy to install your software on existing stand-alone DVRs? By "relatively simple" I mean a documented process: toolchain, programming guide, ssh access.

And if you use a PC together with a video capture card?

Or is the only option for me to use digital cameras in conjunction with a PC and completely write all the software? I would like to integrate with ready-made solutions, because they allow you to view video over the network, keep an archive, display images from several cameras. I would not want to reinvent the wheel and write it all myself.

Answer 1

There are Linux-based DVRs, you won’t get inside the program, but you can add virtual video devices /dev/videoN to the system, and feed them to the DVR. And your program will generate a picture for virtual cameras using the original image.
The option with an intermediary via RTSP or MJPEG is also not bad.

Answer 2

No.
But I can give you some advice:
1) make sure your software works as an RTSP client and server. Those. take video from the camera, give it back as if it were a camera. You do not need to write your own code, take gstreamer
2) make a gstreamer plugin out of your software. Then it may be possible to compile it for the camera's processor and upload it to it. Axis built everything on gstreamer
. And then you might get compatibility for a certain number of registrars.

Answer 3

There are DVRs based on quite a full-fledged mini-computers, where you can install anything. True, such registrars (for several cameras) are expensive. Cheap ones (with built-in cameras) are usually heavily fenced - you just can’t crawl there.
And the idea is certainly interesting. Especially if you connect the recorder to the on-board computer to be able to change shooting modes as needed; and it's easy, for example, in the "night" mode to shoot only moving objects and MMS'it or send by mail images of people trying to open the car.