By Richard Siderits
Several hours each day I'm away from my office, moving throughout the hospital. I needed a way for my office PC to let me know in real time what was going on while I was out. Out of the many options available, I selected an inexpensive but feature packed software called Gotcha.
Gotcha is a program that works with your standard desktop Web cam. The setup is easy, and the features include image or video capture with sustained movement, surveillance Web page creation, and most importantly, email notification. The program allows you to "mask" out areas of a region that aren't of interest, like in Figure A, and then monitors the unmasked areas for movement.
FIGURE A
By masking out areas that aren't of interest, Gotcha will only watch what you want monitored. (click for larger image)
Any movement in these areas triggers an image capture, which is attached to an email and sent to whatever address you desire. It can also play a sound file. Gotcha comes with a growling dog, but you can record your own.
Setting my palmOne Tungsten C to automatically check for email over the wireless network every five minutes allows me to constantly monitor any area of my office for movement. The images can be simultaneously sent to your Web page for a password protected Web-surveillance page. It really works! As a matter of fact it's a great way to monitor almost anything, at home or work.
Richard Siderits is an assistant professor at Robert Wood University Medical School and is an avid proponent of wireless technologies in medicine.
