Have been thinking about this for a couple years. I have old phones kicking around. Battery shot, hardware dated, but the camera(s) and mic and antennas still work. Would be cool if there were a way to set them up (powered) to stream audio/video or even take stills at intervals (or motion-activated) and then sync the content to the rest of the devices on my network.

I don’t know how complex the programming for something like this would be. But I suspect it’s trivial for those who do know.

  • recursivesive@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The camera is on all the time

    That’s what I meant: I don’t know (as in I have zero clue) the camera is designed to operate that way. Is a naive assumption on my side and I’d be glad to learn this is not the case.

    PIR sensor

    No, I didn’t expect a sensor, that’s what I tried to say: the hardware is not there, so (on my mind) a constant image analysis/monitoring would be necessary in order to perceive movement and start recording, as in writing video to storage.

    • reddig33@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That should be possible. There was an old security cam app for the iMac built in camera that would do this. There was no motion sensor — you just stepped out of frame to take a “still” image and then the app would monitor for changes compared to it.

    • ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      I don’t know (as in I have zero clue) the camera is designed to operate that way.

      There is no reason a camera cannot be on all the time other than power consumption. Why couldn’t it? The only limitation is software. Other parts of a phone can overheat from continuous operation (CPU et al., voltage converters, maybe flash LED and vibration motor) but not the camera.

      • recursivesive@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        There is no reason a camera cannot be on all the time… Why couldn’t it?

        Sensor wear, mechanical parts (if any), heat, etc. Essentially wear and tear. Just like nothing lasts forever, using it in a way that it’s not intended/tested/quality assured, may reduce its lifespan.

        Basically: “is the device intended to be on and recording 24/7?”

        • yes: good, the device should last and perform for its purpose
        • no: well, let’s gamble and see how long it lasts