Periscope
Company: Freeverse
Price: $39.95
www.freeverse.com
During this year’s Macworld Expo, I was asked on the MacCast podcast by host Adam Christianson if there was one product that I was excited about. I said yes, a program by Freeverse Software that turned your Macintosh with a built-in iSight (like an iMac) into a security system. I could not remember the applications name, but Adam did. Periscope. That was a month ago, and in that time, I have had the chance to sit down and use the application for a few weeks.
Periscope is an amazingly easy application to use. It’s also amazing how versatile it is. Let’s go over what I wanted to use Periscope for, and why it works for me.
When I leave the house, I set our alarm system. Will the home alarm system prevent people from breaking in and stealing everything? Of course not. No security system can do that. So with that in mind, what could I do? One idea I have always had was to set up the computer and have it record everything it could see via the iSight camera. (using iMovie) But really, what good would that do? If a thief was going to steal the computer, they would get the video file of themselves stealing the computer. And besides, my hard drive would fill up so fast that this was an impractical solution.
Taking pictures would work. It would take up far less space on the hard drive, but again, a thief would take the computer with the photos on it, so what’s the use? Also, HOW would the Mac take pictures? I could set up some sort of Apple Script and have PhotoBooth take a snap shot every, say, 30 seconds. But that is both impractical and a waste of hard drive space.
What I needed was an application that would take pictures, but only if it sensed motion. And it also needed to take advantage of my high speed internet connection, uploading any photos it takes to a server. Well, what do you know; Periscope does all that, and much more!
Periscope senses motion passing in front of your iSight, or any other camera that works on your Mac, and takes a picture. It sounds simple enough, and it is. But the power of Periscope is well hidden behind an easy to use interface.
Once a picture is taken, Periscope can do a number of things with that photo. If you have a .Mac account, you can set the program up so that it will upload the photos there. You can also have photos sent to your own FTP site, as well as a Flickr account. Even better for iPhone users, Periscope has the ability to email the photo, so you can get updates on what’s going on in front of your Mac quickly and easily.
Another option is to have Periscope take photos when it hears noise, when a timer goes off, or when the remote is pressed. You can also set the camera to either look at everything within the camera lens, or specific areas the user designates. This is handy when, for instance, you are not the first person home and you don’t want to have multiple pictures emailing to you every time someone walks by the doorway in the background. But highlighting a designated area on screen, which does not show the doorway, would be much more practical.
Time stamping is another feature. It will place both the time and date on the picture, so you can know when the photo was taken. You can also have an image embedded within the photo, such as a company logo, and Periscope will let you control the opacity of the graphic. (See example below.)
Example of the picture Periscope takes in action
Obviously, I like the security aspects of Periscope. That is the reason Freeverse created the software to begin with. But it can also be a fun toy as well. I set it up one day, and forgot to designate an area, so that every time someone walked by my office door, Periscope would take a picture. After thirty or so snap shots, it was kinda neat to look at.
There are so many useful applications you can use Periscope for. I feel that I have only discovered a few good reasons for this application. I really think Periscope is a great product, and I cannot see much I would change in a newer version. It’s an extremely useful tool that takes advantage of newer Macintosh models with an iSight camera. It is very simple to use and set up. And at $39.95, it’s very affordable. The only draw back is, for me, picture quality was not that great.
How much is peace of mind worth to you? For me, forty-bucks is cheap!
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