Open-sourcing Sapiengraph CCTV

This is a technical post separated into two parts. One readable, the other not (to most).

I will start with an introduction to Sapiengraph CCTV, and how we, as a company, sought out to add software smarts into a camera.

In the second part, I will be copy-pasting the README file that Bach, our CTO, wrote in building the product.

Part 1: CCTVs suck

We started with a boatload of data and computer vision technology. We ended up with a camera because we needed to sell something. It is far easier to sell a physical thing than digital bytes in the cloud.

Every business needs a CCTV. But honest to goodness, CCTVs are terrible devices. The "bleeding edge" Chinese devices from Dahua or Hikvision are antiquated. Let's walk you through why.

The DVR - Digital Video Recorder

Do you know that CCTVs require a dedicated hardware unit to record videos from a CCTV network? It is called the DVR. Most small businesses settle with one that records no more than three weeks tops. Also, most small businesses keep the DVR in the store because a DVR offsite requires a whole load more money. (I will explain why later)

• If your DVR spoils, it will not alert you.
• A thief that understands CCTV networks will walk into a store brazenly, look for the DVR and take it along with his loot with him. And bam, the owner will not have any recordings.
• If the hard disk in the DVR spoils, it will not alert you.
• If the power is down, nothing is recorded

The DVR is the bottleneck of CCTV networks.

With Sapiengraph CCTV, we aspired to do it better. We wanted

• lifetime cloud backup storage
• Battery redundancy for cameras, so power trips are no issue
• And most importantly, SMS notifications to business owners when the CCTV ceases recording

The IP Camera