Eyecopia 2.0 Help System
-Eyecopia Introductory Tutorial: Part One-
Setup a new camera in Eyecopia
The first step in this tutorial is learning how to connect a camera device so that Eyecopia can monitor it. If you have previously used this camera device on your computer, this process will be extremely easy. If you have a brand new camera device, it may take some time to install the proper drivers for the camera. If you are installing a new camera, please read the guide to hardware installation first. Then, after your camera has been fully installed on your computer, complete the following steps to setup the camera in Eyecopia.
Connect the camera device to your computer and open the
Eyecopia program.
- If your camera is directly connected to your computer, (such as firewire, USB, or card device) then Eyecopia will display a dialog box letting you know it has found a new camera device.
- If you are adding a network camera, you will need to click on the Add button, located next to Camera Options on the Setup page. In the dialog window, click on Internet. Then, provide the proper information to allow Eyecopia to connect to your camera.
- You are given three options for how Eyecopia should treat the camera. By default, the second option, I'd like to monitor events from this camera, is selected. Since this is the first time you have setup this camera in Eyecopia, use the default setting.
- Click the OK button to continue. Eyecopia will now start the Camera Setup Wizard.
- The first step of the wizard is just an introduction to the Camera Setup Wizard. For this tutorial, we will just be covering the basics of this wizard. If you want, you can take an in-depth look at the Camera Setup Wizard by following the link. Click the Next button to continue.
- Enter a name you would like to use for this camera. Some suggestions include naming it after the camera itself (Example: Webcam Brand) or after the location you will be monitoring with the camera (Example: Front Door).
- If your camera device has a microphone attached, you can record audio along with your video files. However, you must tell Eyecopia which audio source to listen to for this to work. If you want to use the audio, select the down arrow on the drop-down menu and select the source that comes from your camera. This is usually fairly obvious if there is only one camera. If you have more than one camera, you may have to try it out and see if you have the right one. You can always change it later if this is the case. Click the Next button to continue.
- The next step allows you to apply masks to the camera. This helps if you want to ignore certain areas of the camera's view when the camera is being monitored. For instance, if the camera is looking out a window, you might want to mask a tree limb that is always moving due to the wind. We'll leave this for now. Click the Next button to continue.
- The next step in the wizard allows you to change how events are triggered and created within Eyecopia. The default settings will work fine initially. Click the Next button to continue.
- The wizard will now present you with the option to add a timestamp to your Eyecopia event videos and live views for this camera. If you would like to add a timestamp, check the first box and then select a toggle button to tell Eyecopia where you want the timestamp displayed. Also, you can choose to include fractions of seconds in the timestamp by checking the second box. Click the Next button to continue.
- Now, the wizard will ask if you would like to create a monitoring schedule. This is useful if you do not want to have to manually turn Eyecopia monitoring on and off. For now, we will do this as needed. Click the Next button to continue.
- The next step of the wizard will allow you to publish Eyecopia events and live images to your website. If you plan on using this feature, just check the first box, Enable web publishing for this camera. The other information just modifies what information is uploaded to your website. You can leave the default settings or change them to meet your needs. Click the Next button to continue.
- The wizard will now provide you the ability to launch an external program whenever this camera detects an event. If you would like to do this, we recommend you read the in-depth description of this feature first. If not, click the Next button to continue.
- The final step of the wizard let's you know you have completed all the steps required to setup your camera device in Eyecopia. Click Finish to return to the Eyecopia Setup page. Congratulations!
