Sound- or motion-activated video recording software

March 14, 2018 12:51 PM

I am looking for free or inexpensive Mac software that will record video using my Mac's built-in camera when it detects sound and/or motion.

My housebroken adult dog has started peeing in his crate during the day. He was given a clean bill of health, and he doesn't have any trouble holding it overnight or when we're home, so the vet and I think that something is stressing him out during the work day.

I want to record him when we're gone to see if I can figure out what the culprit is. I don't want to have to slog through a day's worth of video, so I want it to only record when triggered by sound and/or motion. (Not sure if sound or motion is going to be the right cue, so I'd like the option of trying both.)

Please hope me, MeFi!

posted by radioamy to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

The software called Motion will do this, and in fact was written specifically to do this. :7)

How savvy are you? Here's the instructions to build it with `brew` on OS X:
https://motion-project.github.io/motion_build.html#BUILD_MACOSX

And here's one person's verrry detailed blog post about how they used Motion to build a motion-sensitive security camera:
https://www.bouvet.no/bouvet-deler/utbrudd/building-a-motion-activated-security-camera-with-the-raspberry-pi-zero

Yes, this is a terrible name for a software project.
posted by wenestvedt at 1:30 PM on March 14, 2018

Best answer: OnCue (free)

Motion Detector ($4.99)

iSentry (free)

onCue looks like possibly the most current of these.
posted by mwhybark at 1:55 PM on March 14, 2018

This is a job for ManyThing! It's excellent and cheap!!
posted by jbenben at 4:20 PM on March 14, 2018

I use Presence to keep an eye on my pups.
posted by pixiecrinkle at 10:19 AM on March 15, 2018

Response by poster: Thanks, OnCue worked perfectly!
posted by radioamy at 9:02 PM on March 15, 2018 [1 favorite]