Table of Contents
Smart Camera Live Feed
Author: Georgescu Ioana
Project archive: cameraside.zip
Database: https://console.firebase.google.com/u/0/project/smart-camera-live-feed/overview
1. Project Objective
The objective of this project is to create a system of cameras and sensors for monitoring various locations and an Android app for observing all the data collected. The current iteration of the project consists of one camera and one DHT22 sensor.
The system offers:
- a live feed from the camera and real time readings from the sensor
- a historic for the past 5 days containing, for each hour of each day, the average temperature and humidity and one picture taken in that hour
- a historic for the past 30 days containing, for each day, 4 pictures (one taken at midnight, one at noon, one at 5 in the morning and one at 6 in the evening) and the average temperature and humidity
2. Hardware
| Item | Buy |
|---|---|
| ESP32-CAM module | https://ardushop.ro/en/home/1446-esp32-cam.html?search_query=esp32+cam&results=63 |
| FTDI FT232RL programmer | https://ardushop.ro/en/home/86-usb-20-to-ttl-uart-on-stc-cp2120-arduino-pro-mini-programmer.html |
| DHT22 temperature and humidity sensor | https://ardushop.ro/en/electronics/230-temperature-and-humidity-sensor-dht22.html?search_query=DHT22&results=1 |
The DHT22 is connected to the ESP32-CAM module. The ESP32-CAM module does not have a built-in programmer. I used an FTDI programmer to connect it to upload my code and to provide the power supply. Both the ESP32-CAM and the DHT22 require a 6V power supply.
3. Software
The camera side of the project was implemented using the Arduino IDE.
For the Android app I used Android Studio.
For storing the data I created a Firebase project. I used the Realtime Database to store and update the sensor readings and the Storage for the images from the CAM. The images are referenced by their URL in the Realtime Database to make querying them in the Android app more straightforward.
The CAM reads the sensor and takes a picture every 5 seconds. It uses an NTP server to determine the current hour. The hour is used to compose the path to the data to be updated in the Realtime Database and to determine weather the current image shoul be included in the 30 day summary.