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August 8, 2005 7:41 AM

Start a webcam on a timer to catch a prank

What I have: a laptop using Windows 2000 and a Creative brand USB webcam.
What I need: A (free) solution that will let me tell the webcam to start recording at a specific time, and to record for a set length of time, ex: Start at 6:30 am, stop after 2 hours (or at 8:30 if that's a better way).

What software solutions can you recommend for me? This is all to capture a prank we're playing on a friend.

posted by KirTakat to computers & internet (6 comments total)

SupervisionCam?
posted by whatisish at 8:09 AM on August 8, 2005

You can get programs called "macro" software which let you schedule certain tasks/clicks/etc. A lot of them have free trials which might be ideal for this. Google for macro software for Windows.
posted by wackybrit at 9:37 AM on August 8, 2005

I bet EvoCam would do the trick if you were on a Mac (it even has motion-activation), but the makers of this software recommend WebcamXP for Windows users, which they say is very similar to their software.
posted by robbie01 at 11:32 AM on August 8, 2005

I think the aforementioned WebcamXp has a free trial period, and of possible interest to your prank catching in case you were unaware, like many webcam programs it has motion sensing. You set the sensitivity, and as soon as one frame differs from the previous by more than the sensitivity setting, it starts capturing frames, which depending on exactly what you're trying to do, might save you some time looking through hours of footage, and the associated disk space.
posted by -harlequin- at 1:29 PM on August 8, 2005

So, if any of these suggestions work are we going to get a reward, namely, the video of the prank?
posted by Pollomacho at 3:41 PM on August 8, 2005

It doesn't look like it :-(
posted by dance at 2:53 AM on July 6, 2006