Web camera to monitor my wifes Grandad!

Bernard

All,

My wife's Grandad is 93, still lives at home on his own (across the road from our house so we keep an eye on him) but sadly he is starting to become frail and forgetful.

My wife wanted to know could we set up broadband in his home, connect up some wireless cameras and monitor him from our house to ensure he has not fallen over etc?

Now I know how to go about setting up broadband but I know nothing about wireless cameras, can anyone advise? We were thinking of putting one in the Living Room, one in the Kitchen and one in the Hallway.

Would he need a PC in his house or do the wireless cameras talk to the wireless broadband router directly. How do you then monitor these cameras from the internet/mobile phone?

Thanks for your time and help if possible.

Berni

somersethillbilly

Take a look at iSpy.

Mankysteve

If he lives across the road you may be able to get WiFi with not sure what commercial product s are available. But one diy method involves two Pringle tubes.

neilwoods

How far across from the road, do you have a clear line of site. How are you with setting up routers in bridge mode. Could set up a router in his home in bridge mode, with maybe external aerial. Either a pc with IP camera's or complete cctv system attached to router. Then you could watch the footage on your pc. Set up may be a bit more than broadband with ip cameras, but no monthly cost.

S0litaire

You don't need a PC in the granddads house! just a router (you can set it all up in your house first then just take it over and plug / screw things in to walls and broadband router.

Some can be accessed directly but as it's on home broadband you might need to set it up something like "www.noip.com" so that even if the IP address changes you can still access the webcams remotely

Depends on how much you have to spend a couple of these might be usefull :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Original-Tenvis-professional-wireless-security/dp/B006P7N2UC/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1372097467&sr=1-3

it's technically a "baby monitor" but it just a pan/tilt webcam that has a microphone and speaker so you can talk to each other.

more here : http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=sr_nr_p_n_feature_keywords_0?rh=n%3A340831031%2Cn%3A429893031%2Cn%3A430595031%2Ck%3Awireless+webcam%2Cp_n_feature_keywords_browse-bin%3A1038971031&keywords=wireless+webcam&ie=UTF8&qid=1372097685&rnid=1038911031

patman99

Aldi were doing a wireless camera that would suit your needs.

Bernard

Interesting reading, thanks everyone. His house is directly opposite ours. I've never tried to see if our wireless router can be seen from his house, so I will have to try that tomorrow.

I like the 'baby monitor' idea, amazing clever stuff these cameras!

The perfect result would be to view the cameras on an mobile as well as PC from anywhere, eg work.

Well I've got some good suggestions, so thank you again. I'm off to read up on what has been suggested. Pringle tubes, I've looked that up and it made me laugh!

elsien

How does wife's granddad feel about having his moves monitored (I know my grandmother of a similar age would have understandably loathed the idea), and what if he falls in the camera free bathroom or bedroom?
Wouldn't he be better off installing lifeline or similar, where he can have the call button on him and press it for help when he needs it?

Bernard

Good points elsien, you are 100% correct. I do not disagree, I imagine we will arrange for lifeline and call button in the near future. The camera is an idea, which he seems ok with at the moment. He still feels strongly about being independent and often rejects offers of home help etc.

Thanks for the call button suggestion, I will discuss it with him.

Cheers

John_Gray

Surely for comprehensive coverage you would need a camera in every single room into which he goes - including the bathroom? Elsien's idea of a call button sounds less invasive, if somewhat less comprehensive.

(rereading that post shows me that the bathroom point is already covered!)

elektra

elsien wrote: »

How does wife's granddad feel about having his moves monitored (I know my grandmother of a similar age would have understandably loathed the idea), and what if he falls in the camera free bathroom or bedroom?
Wouldn't he be better off installing lifeline or similar, where he can have the call button on him and press it for help when he needs it?

and if he is unable to press the button some of these systems have a fall detector ( see page 2 of this leaflet)