WICam: Wireless iPhone Camera Anthony Blatner Matthew Catanzaro Thomas Knack

Outline Overview Performance Specifications Operational Objectives Sensor Types and Placement Actuator Description and Placement Initialization and Recovery User Interface iPhone Application Operating Restrictions iPhone/Webcam Interface Anticipated Risks Multidisciplinary Components Test Strategies Estimated Costs

Overview The WICam application will be able to stream videos onto the iPhone from webcams wirelessly. The application will be able to choose between multiple webcams to stream from, and change the webcam’s orientation by utilizing the built-in pan and tilt capabilities. The accelerometer sensor in the iPhone feels acceleration from external forces such as setting the iPhone in motion or stopping the iPhone from moving. The pan and tilt functionality will be operated using the acceleration due to gravity felt by the iPhone in the x, y, and z axis.

Performance Specifications Webcam Specifications: Capture rate: Minimum – 15 frames per second Resolution: Basic – 352 x 288, Standard – 640 x 480 Pan and Tilt: Minimum Pan – 150°, Minimum Tilt – 90° Capture Rate To stream a video you need a minimum rate of 15 frames per second. Ideally, the webcam should capture 30 frames per second for better quality. Anything higher than that is essentially not needed since your eye won’t detect it. Resolution Basic video quality can be accomplished by webcams with 352 x 288. The standard resolution for web cam video capturing is 640 x x 320 is the full screen size of the iPhone, so a larger resolution would simply have to be truncated or shrunken to fit. Pan and Tilt Panning should have a 150° range while the tilting should have a 90° range, minimum so that multiple viewing positions can be observed.

Operational Objectives The operational objectives associated with this project are as follows: 1. Allow for the addition of new webcams 2. Select the video feed from available webcams 3. Access webcam video feed remotely from the iPhone 4. Pan and tilt the webcam using accelerometer data attained from the position of the iPhone 5. Toggle pan and tilt controls 6. Save entered webcam addresses

Operational Objectives Achieving the Objectives The application must provide an interface which will allow users to enter a new webcam for viewing. Subsequently, these webcams must be saved in order to view them upon re- opening the application. An interface will be constructed that will prompt for the appropriate information in order to accurately identify the camera being added. A list of the current webcams will be available for display so that the user can choose which camera they would like to view. The list will be implemented in a tabular format. Viewing a webcam’s video feed is a relatively simple task. It involves acquiring the IP address associated with the desired webcam. Once the IP address is known the webcam’s video feed can be viewed by connecting to its specified IP address. Panning and tilting the webcam will prove to be the most difficult operation. The webcam will contain built in pan and tilt capabilities, but these features must be accessible by the iPhone to provide the proper operation. Two options exist for this objective. The first entails detailed knowledge of the webcam’s API in order to bypass the software used to control the webcam’s features. The second option requires commands which will wrap around the predefined software commands that accompany the webcam. Along with this, the interface must provide the ability to disable pan and tilt functions for viewing ease.

Sensor Types and Placement Sensors iPhone Touch Screen iPhone Accelerometer Placement The sensors are built-in features of the iPhone and are accessed through the API.

Actuator Description and Placement Actuator Wireless Webcam Placement The webcams used by this application can be placed in any region that allows access to a wireless connection. Cameras equipped with pan, tilt, and zoom can rotate the frame of view.

Initialization and Recovery Initialization Webcam power on iPhone power on Acquire webcam IP address Application initialization Webcam-iPhone connection The webcam and iPhone handle the initialization of its components internally, but our application creates the connection between them. Our application also handles the sending and receiving of webcam commands and the webcam feed using URL parameters. Recovery Application recovery is handled by the iPhone and re-launching the application. Webcam feed recovery is handled internally by the webcam. A dropped connection may require an application restart.

User Interface The user interface is going to be almost entirely through the iPhone application. The usefulness of the system is that our device acts as the driving controller and also the main interface with the user all in one. The following figures illustrate how users would add a new webcam, select a webcam from their list, and also view the webcam feed.

iPhone Application Connection Settings Navigation Bar This figure shows the input fields required to add a new webcam, which contain name, IP address, port, and an optional username, password, and notes section. The IP address and port will be error checked for in order to ensure only numbers are entered. Along with this, the IP address will check for a valid number ranging from to

iPhone Application Navigation Bar Available Webcams Scrolling List

iPhone Application Enable Accelerometer ControlBack to Select Camera Menu Camera Name Viewing Screen

Example

Operating Restrictions The WICam application can be used where a wireless access point is available. The webcam will be restricted in terms of its features based on the company specifications. These restrictions are the following: DCS-5300G High Speed 2.4GHz (802.11g) Wireless Network Camera Capture Rate: 30fps at 160x120 30fps at 320x240 10fps at 640x480 Pan range: 270º Tilt range: 90º Zoom: 4x Digital Zoom Connectivity: Wireless g Security: 128-bit WEP encryption, password authentication

iPhone/Webcam Interface Accessing the webcam feed Webcams output MJPEG video accessible via HTTP requests. should respond with a MIME content-type of image/jpeg and it will send you a jpeg image and then close the connection. should respond with a MIME content-type of multipart/x-mixed-replace and then it will keep the connection open and repeatedly send content-type image/jpeg as above until you close the connection or it times out. MIME - Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions Sending PTZ commands to the webcam PTZ movements are also HTTP requests with URL parameters to control the movement. Indicates URL parameters Pan TiltZoom

Anticipated Risks Packet loss and delay Making sure the delay between the tilting of the iPhone and the pan and tilt of the webcam is within acceptable limits could pose problems. If the delay is severe, a very large change in the design of the project could be required. Resolution compatibility between iPhone and webcam We must make sure that the webcam’s resolution and the iPhone’s resolution are identical or that they differences in the resolution do not completely distort or pixelate the image on the iPhone screen. Pan and tilt functionality If a webcam with built in pan and tilt functionality is not used, servo motors may be needed to do achieve the pan and tilt. Using mechanical parts could cause difficulties if we are not meticulous in the building of those mechanical parts Retrieving and converting accelerometer data It is not known as of now how fast the accelerometer data updates, or how fast the data can be retrieved or sent. Significant testing must be done to see if the accelerometer in the iPhone meets the required updating speed and how sensitive the camera is to the pan and tilt data sent.

Multidisciplinary Components Industrial Engineering – Designing the GUI for the iPhone application so that it is user friendly and incorporates all the necessary features specified by the requirements. These features include: viewing the video feed from the selected webcam, enabling the user to switch between multiple webcams, permitting the user to add new webcams to stream from and toggling the pan and tilt of the selected webcam. Electrical Engineering – Wireless communication between the iPhone and the webcam interface. The iPhone is capable of switching between Wi-Fi and 3G seamlessly. This characteristic will be exploited in order to establish the most reliable and fastest connection between the iPhone and the webcam interface for a given instance. Software Engineering – Developing and designing the iPhone application that will extract the accelerometer data and communicate wirelessly to the webcam interface. The accelerometer data is easily accessed with an API call to the iPhone operating system. Image Processing (Possibly) – Involves improving the quality or scaling the webcam image as well as resolution compatibility. However, through appropriate selection of a webcam this procedure may be excluded. Mechanical Engineering (Possibly) – Designing a pan and tilt platform using servo motors. This could be a very time consuming process depending on the design and servo motors used. Thus, a webcam with a built-in pan and tilt feature would eliminate this process altogether and save valuable time.

Test Strategies iPhone Testing Accelerometer data The iPhone app will read the accelerometer data to understand the orientation of the phone. This data is easily accessed through the iPhone API calls as discovered in the risk investigation and the code below. Webcam feed displayed on the phone The iPhone will display the webcam feed on the screen to be viewed by the user. This will be tested by comparing the view of the webcam with the display of the iPhone and confirming they match. Touch Screen and GUI operation The app will display buttons for connecting to cameras and toggling pan and tilt. Therefore the app will need to read touches to the screen to control buttons. Proper operation of all buttons and navigation of all GUI screens will be tested as well. The events related to touching and dragging will be implemented and tested based on the code below. App Performance Verify that the app doesn’t crash using the iPhone simulator to test performance. Limitations of text fields and other entries will be checked for improper values and ensured that they are handled appropriately.

Test Strategies - (void)accelerometer:(UIAccelerometer *)accelerometer didAccelerate:(UIAcceleration *)acceleration{ UIAccelerationValue x, y, z; x = acceleration.x; y = acceleration.y; z = acceleration.z; } Code used to retrieve iPhone accelerometer data

Test Strategies - (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { } -(void)touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { } -(void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { for (UITouch *touch in touches) { if (touch.tapCount >= 2) { [self.superview bringSubviewToFront:self]; } -(void)touchesCancelled:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event { } Code used to handle iPhone touch screen events

Test Strategies Network Testing Wireless Connection Wireless webcams will be used and should automatically connect to the available Wi-Fi network. The connectivity will be tested by reaching the webcam over the wireless network and verifying that the feed can be acquired. The selected webcam will be associated with a valid IP address which will be entered into the iPhone web browser. The feed from the webcam should then be viewable within the browser verifying a reliable wireless connection and that webcam videos can be streamed and viewed on the iPhone. Ethernet Connection In the case where a user does not have a wireless access point readily available a typical Ethernet connection can still be used for remote webcam viewing. Like the wireless connection, this connection will also be tested by physically connecting the webcam to the Ethernet and entering the webcam’s IP address into the iPhone’s web browser. As previously stated, the feed from the webcam should then be viewable within the browser verifying a reliable ethernet connection and that webcam videos can be streamed and viewed on the iPhone.

Network Testing Data Transfer Rates The network data transfer rates will need to be tested to verify that it can support a continuous webcam feed of acceptable quality. This can be accomplished by viewing the video feed supplied by a webcam. If the video does not appear choppy then a valid data transfer rate exists on the network. The necessary data transfer rate should be able to support fps in order to properly sustain a viewable video stream. Device Communication Verify that the webcam feed displays on the iPhone screen and the iPhone can control and move the orientation of the webcam. The delay of the iPhone tilting to the webcam adjusting should be less than 1-2 seconds. This should in-turn update the feed displayed on the webcam. Test Strategies

Webcam Testing Install the Installation CD to enable the software. Connect the webcam to the computer via the Ethernet. Ensure that video is receivable. Following this, test the features associated with the webcam through the use of the software. These features include: Pan range of 270° Tilt range 90° Zoom 4x Capture rates 10, 30 fps Resolution 160x120, 320x240, 640x480 (depending on fps) Repeat the previous steps for the wireless connection. Test Strategies

Initial Unit Tests: Retrieving accelerometer data Utilizing the touch screen Data transfer rates Pan & Tilt Integration and Functionality Tests: Wireless Connection setup Communication between iPhone and webcam Webcam feed displayed on the phone Acceptance Tests: Full communication between iPhone and webcam Connection Reliability App Performance and Reliability Test Strategies

Estimated Costs ComponentRetailerRetail CostQuantityCommentsTotal Cost Wireless WebcamD-Link/Others$ $ iPhoneApple$99.001Already Available$0.00 Mac ComputerApple$ Already Available$0.00 Apple iPhone SDKApple$0.001Free download$0.00 Apple Developer LicenseApple$99.001May be free for students$99.00 Wireless Access PointCisco$ RIT Network$0.00 Total$1,647.00$449.00