One camera that sticks out to be more value than they charge for it is the Foscam FI8919 series. It has a web server built in and can stream in multiple formats. The config is super easy – and if Windows was the end use – could have multiple cameras all show up on one screen!  Each camera is $89 CDN – that is … “start the car!” …. a crazy low price and they work – and keep working (for over a year now – non-stop)! They answer emails in a flash too and there is lots of forums of people doing all sorts of things. The end destination is XBMC which is a superb piece of software which I wrote the just-use-the-filename plug in. It is used for viewing the video feeds from the security cameras which we cycle from camera to camera every 25 seconds but also the iPhone for parents to monitor what is going on in the nursery rooms.

What I have learned is that instead of using a browser to capture the image in iOS, is to use instead a UIImage and send MJPEG video format to it. WHat this format is is JPEGs sent in sequence to the UIImage View which can handle this no problem. It is much cheaper on memory which for handheld devices is much better. Here are the links I used to figure out how to get the tool working. Kudos to these guys who figured all this out so I could use it.

http://thinkflood.com/support/redeye/software/open-source-software/motion-jpeg-image-view-ios/

Now I just need to integrate it into an app that is bigger than just looking at various cameras at the non-profit organization but to make an app that will help parents connect with their kids with the curriculum provided at this organization.

Once I get a nice name for it – I will publish a link to the name. This is all being done on a volunteer basis – so it might take a while.