Video surveillance - looking for a camera for an arduino project

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello,

I'm trying to setup a project using an Arduino and a camera using for video surveillance and security.

Basically it would constantly check for motion (using IR or sonar) and once something is detected it will start recording a video (or just take pictures if not possible) and put it on a SDCard. Because of power consumption (it will be powered by battery) I do not think it is possible to record video all the time (and because SD Card is limited in size it would probably overwrite useful data quickly ). I do not need any video or picture processing like tracking moving objects.

Building the sensor part should not be a problem , however I have issues for finding a good camera.

Here is what i have think about or found so far :

  • Using a TTL Serial JPEG Camera + some shield to save data on SDCard (like Adafruit Assembled Data Logging shield). This camera has motion sensor integrated (not sure if i would use it, range seems limited). It can be interfaced easily with arduino, has low power consumption and can take pictures in the dark. Seems perfect tool for the job. However it has a big downside : it seems camera take 4-5 seconds to take a single picture, which is definitely too much. 0.5s or 1s would probably be ok, but 5 seconds is definitely too much. Not sure about video part, it seems it can only be used with a monitor (or then it need something that can process it).

  • using AVRcam or Pixy (used for motion tracking). fast camera however i do not need the tracking feature, not sure it that is the right camera for this project.

  • buying a cheap digital camera (you can found some for less than 50$ easily), dismount it and use arduino to trigger the movie start. it can already record movies and save them on a SDCard. Seems a good possibility. However it might be a little difficult to setup, high probability of failure (because there two separate systems), what about video overwrite (when it is full), and the slow start/stop. It also does not work in the dark.

  • using a Arduino Yun + cheap usb webcam + SDCard. Seems nice as it can probably save picture and motion video on SDCard without too much effort. downsides : power consumption is high, yun is pretty expensive, external webcam take lot of place. (but i think it is possible to find small ones).

I am not an expert when it comes to electronics.
Has anybody suggestions, or has work previously on a similar project ? Any help appreciated.

2

Buy a cheap camera, and take it to pieces and control its operation

Using the arduino to store data is a waste of time and effort, its not suited to doing this.

Yes, you could use the Yun etc etc, but if you want to run it off batteries, you best bet is to just use a basic arduino, perhaps a modified pro mini, and put it to sleep when not in use.

Use one of those pir modules that has a output signal when triggered, so wake the arduino via an interrupt, and then get the arduino to power up the camera and then get the camera to start recording