My cat likes my desk. I like my desk. I like my cat.
I do not like my cat on my desk.
I’ve been webcam shopping for about six months, so I’m about ready to get one. Haven’t finalized which one yet, so I’m still open.
I’m also willing to purchase a separate camera that’s solely dedicated to this project, especially if mounting it somewhere other than atop my monitor would work out better. Guess if the software allowed it, I could also set other zones in my office to watch the door, the bird feeder in the window, etc…
My idea is to find a piece of software that’ll let me create a box around my desk, and look for my cat within that box. When it sees my cat in the “desk box” it should allow me to trigger… something. Maybe a noise, maybe a magic packet sent to a 50 cal turret, I don’t know. I’m looking for advice.
For the least amount of setup I would use a Grandstream SIP camera like the GSC3610 but any camera in their lineup will work. Then in the camera there is an option to set up an alarm to ring any SIP endpoint when motion is detected in a certain area (you can just put the IP address of whatever endpoint you want) that could be a VoIP phone, speaker, control panel etc. Also the camera lets you have multiple schedules on different days and whatnot. I use one as a driveway alarm and have had pretty good luck (other than a false alarm when it swaps from day to night mode, but that can be worked around). You could also do this with a Reolink camera if you want it to ping an app on your phone (that would also work even if you aren’t home).