Vitamin D Video Reference Guide

Introduction

Welcome to Vitamin D Video! This reference guide gives you a high-level overview and details of how to use the application. To skip to a specific section, click one of the tabs above.

See a short video overview here.

For instructions on how to get your camera up and running with Vitamin D Video, go to the Getting Started tab.

What is Vitamin D Video?

Vitamin D Video detects people and moving objects in video streams for security and monitoring purposes. You can take hours of video and choose to see only specific types of clips. For example, you can create "rules" to show only clips of people walking through a door, or moving objects crossing a line, or people lingering on top of a lawn. In addition, you can choose to be notified by email or a sound alert when those rules are triggered in the future.

If you are interested in general home security and/or monitoring but don't know where to start, a few examples of what you can do are:
- Record who comes to your door while you are away
- Help your neighborhood watch group by monitoring the street or your backyard while you are out.
- Send yourself a notification when your child comes home from school.
- Set up a schedule to record inside your house while you are at work or on vacation.
- Monitor activity at a second home when you are absent.
- Catch if there are kids in your pool, or find out who (or what) is knocking over your trash cans.
- Watch the backyard or a room where your pet is supposed to be (or not supposed to be!).
For small businesses or retail locations, a few examples of what you can do beyond having an archive of video are:
- Monitor a back door or unattended lobby area.
- See who goes in and out of a specific room or secure area.
- Figure out who is littering in front of your store, writing graffiti on your walls, loitering suspiciously after hours, etc.
- Help verify if an alarm is false, before the police arrive (and potentially fine you).
- Set up some very basic flow analysis ("retail analytics") for your store, e.g., quickly scan to see how many people lingered in front of an end cap or entered a section of your store.

What you need to get started: a camera and a computer

First you must have a USB webcam or network camera ("IP camera"). Note that the camera needs to be stationary. Camera phones, handheld camcorders, and videos containing panning and zooming are not supported.

USB webcams, either attached to the USB port of your computer or built into a laptop, tend to be optimized for indoor use. Your webcam may not automatically adjust to the wide variation of outdoor lighting between night and day. If you already have a webcam, however, it can be an easy way to try out the software before you buy an IP camera. There are also 10-15 foot USB extension cables available, and some as long as 80 feet. Some Firewire cameras are also supported.
Network cameras (also called IP cameras) are video cameras that transmit video over a computer network, so they don't require video cables connecting your cameras to your PC. Many network cameras work wirelessly over Wi-Fi networks as well. Some network cameras are designed for outdoor installation, and typically feature "Power Over Ethernet" (POE). This means that they are connected via an Ethernet cable that supplies both power and network connectivity. Network cameras can be purchased at computer stores or online, from prices starting under $100. Note that the recognition accuracy can vary significantly by camera. Vitamin D has tested and supports a number of cameras that are listed here.