[ale] ZoneMinder

[Thompson Freeman]

On 07/24/2008 01:18:40 PM, Chris Fowler wrote:
> Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> > Just to interject here...what's more important to your father, 
> > preventing his HVAC system from being pilfered or taking video of
> the 
> > people who did it?
> >   
> 
> Insurance will cover the system but he would be interested in ways of 
> prevention if you have suggestions.  The HVAC ppl said he could put a 
> pressure alarm on the system but the thieves can get away with the 
> copper in about 15 minutes and it would do little good.
> 


Ok - First lets admit that with respect to security alarms etc I 
probably don't know what I'm babbling about.

That said - video monitoring with recording provides some weak 
deterrence, and can provide evidence for prosecution (if you get lucky) 
assuming sufficient lighting. 

With respect to lighting, I have a friend who self-installed a video 
monitoring system looking for a neighbor's pitbulls which keep getting 
out of their pen. The attached IR illumination is _limited_ on his 
equipment, so you may want to look for some floodlamps either in the 
visible or IR.

Joining the the pressure alarm with a motion monitoring system may be 
resistant enough to false alarms to justify a local horn or sound 
alarm, which would slightly increase the deterrence value of the 
system. Alternatively, or in addition, triggering a strobe might both 
have a deterrent effect and improve the odds of a good solid picture 
being captured.

And now to get admittedly weird: I think motion (the program set) has 
the ability to localize moving bodies in the image. Use that ability to 
trigger a targeting laser and potentially scare any miscreants half to 
death. There are probably legal consequences however. 

Again, there are probably legal consequences, but years ago an auto 
repair outfit got tired of thieves just shooting the guard dog, and 
hired three or four rattlesnakes. Stopped intrusions in their tracks. 
Unfortunately, one of the snakes wound up hibernating in a tire instead 
of going in their daytime tank after the evenings guard duty. Pet 
snakes might make decent guard animals tho...

Hope this doesn't represent too much noise on the list. YMMV of course.