[hedora]

We have cameras on driveways, etc where there is no power or ethernet. These cameras (and perhaps a solar powered wifi mesh network, which these could form if they had the right software) are a reasonable solution to that problem:

https://m.reolink.com/

I’d love to have it take video feeds from something like those. (Perhaps via a standard network protocol.)

Store + ml recognize them locally, and simultaneously client-side encrypt and stream them to an s3-compatible bucket (eg backblaze b2).

Bonus points if the gizmo has a sim card and backup battery so it keeps working if power / internet are cut. (Most of the time it’d upload via residential broadband (wifi/ethernet), but while the house is being broken into, it’s fine if it burns a few GB of cell plan data.)

Make sure the box is compatible with some sort of ssd/nvme drive (no moving parts), and not just hdd.

One model for monetizing it: AGPL or BSL it, and offer some cloud side services for convenience features like managing the encrypted bucket, pruning “boring” videos after 30 days, etc. edit: or, provide a nice (open source, simple) nat hole punching vpn service so phones can see the video in real time. Maybe charge for access to bounce servers and automatic setup.

[1MachineElf]

Thanks for sharing this. I was not aware that Reolink was introducing solar-powered cameras. I like their brand because back in 2017 I was searching for 802.3af PoE IP cams and they were the most recommended. Been running a couple since then and have had good results overall. I hope they are still producing them as good now as they were back then.

[anh_n]

Thanks for your suggestion. But are these functionalities not better implemented on a desktop computer? A mobile phone is limited in compute capability but very portable, so it easy to use it for occasional situation like when traveling, or when you only need a security camera for a short time and do not want to invest much.