Alarm that takes Photos/video??

After reading the thread started by dirrtymatt about a 'hit and run' on his car, made me start thinking. Would it be possible to set up an alarm that took pictures and sent them via sms or email? Possibly even saving video. Save higher quality images to an on board hard drive or Compact flash card?

Does anyone know of anything that does this?

By setting it up to save to an on board computer by a trigger via door opening sensors or alarm activation. Ideally it would take pictures at intervals of say 2 seconds for 1 minute (or video ) Would cover areas like drivers seat, front rear and sides of car ( externally to get images of hit and run drivers / hopefully capture number plate! )

I know a guy that worked in security fitting cctv systems, mini infrared cameras are alot cheaper than I would have expected. Ill try to talk to him and see if they do any low voltage systems.

Would this footage be admissable as evidence in the same way cctv footage is?

Currently I know that there are alarms that text you when they are stolen, so it should be possible to sms pictures.

On another side even if it just saved to an on board computer, cars are often broken into and not stolen, just stripped this would in theory catch them in the act. You could then view the captured footage to see who did it!

The hardest bit would be designing a system that could start instantly or run for long periods without running the battery down.

Did a search on google and it seems that it has been done before though can't find any details for it!

Does anyone know of anything that does this? Do you think it could be a good idea?

You'd want it to upload to a web server via mobile phone too, just incase they find the unit or steel the car.

I still think one of these 20gb pocket mpeg4 recorders would be the easiest solution. Inexpensive and should record many hours of acceptable quality without draining your battery. Build some kind of circuit which fires off the relavent key-presses to start recording when the alarm is set or central locking clicks or just try to remember to start it recording every time you get out of the car.

Aren't there alarms that do this already? Sure someone posted a link to ebay selling them. Wish I could find it coz I wan't one as well

I had a mate who had a web cam that was motion activated and took images as set intervals. You could run it anywhere within reach of a network cable/power point. The images then just get stored on your PC - useful for catching the little feckers!

I was going to get a cctv camera to mount pointing at the drive, but it would be a good idea to get one on the car somewhere for when you get rammed in a car park!!

Imagine their suprise having reversed into some car in the Asda car park and doing a runner, then getting a letter from their insurance a few days later asking them for an incident form to be completed!!

I read something in Autoexpress that is a Gps system that warns owner when his car is being driven erratically and video's how they are driving (designed for parents who let there kids drive there cars) will do a serch and see if I can find it.

A few years ago i think Toad did a camera that was linked to the alarm system that was probably 3 or 4 years ago though.

i saw these alarms on ebay.com the other week, not too expensive and they send a pic to the key fob of anything that disturbs the car. i.e a driver side window view.