The webcam, both the one integrated into the computer monitors, and the one connected via USB cable, can be used for many purposes, as seen in other articles: with the webcam you can chat via videoconference with friends or relatives, you can transmit live by creating an online TV or you can even play. Another very interesting use of the webcam is to monitor an environment or computer workstation, saving images or video footage.
In this guide we will show you the best programs with which to take photos from the webcam automatically at time intervals, so that you can always monitor the room or location from unauthorized use.
The reported programs are free and also portable, so we won't have to spend anything to get the required features.
READ ALSO -> How to activate and deactivate the webcam and take photos
1) Take photos with the webcam
The best program for taking photos with the webcam is definitely WebCamImageSave .
This software is portable and can be started immediately after it has been downloaded and is compatible with any webcam recognized by the system.
The program displays a configuration window at startup from where you can change the format of the name of the image files that will be saved and other settings.
By default, the name of the saved image file contains the date and time of capture but you can change this setting by specifying other variables, such as the folder in which to save the photos taken.
In the options you can also select the interval in which the photos are taken set to 60 seconds.
Among other options, you can add a label to each captured photo in which the shooting date and time or another type of text is written and decide the jpg quality value or change the format of the photos saved in png and bmp.
The software starts capturing webcam images automatically after closing the options window but you can disable automatic periodic shooting from the dedicated menu and capture images manually by pressing the F8 key.
In the options of the main window, you can change the video resolution and modify the parameters such as brightness, color and contrast.
The photos are saved in the c: / Images folder, which is created for the occasion (we can obviously choose any other path as you wish).
Once you have learned how to use it via the graphical interface, it can be very useful to use it from the terminal, so you can capture photos automatically without having to click on anything.
To do this we will have to open Scheduler on Windows (look for it in the Start menu), create a new activity, set the activation period ( Activation -> New -> Upon access ) and, in the window of actions to be taken ( Actions - > New -> Start program ), enter the following command:
WebCamImageSave.exe / capture / LabelColor ff0000 / FontBold 1 / FontSize 16 / FontName "Arial" / Filename "c: \ images \ image% date: dd-MM-yyyy% _% time: HH-mm% .jpg"
If we do not know how to insert it, we carefully look at the image below to obtain an adequate configuration.
Let's help with the Browse button to find the path of the program, then enter the rest of the command in the Add arguments field.
All that remains is to confirm on OK and try to restart the PC: when the user logs on, we will see the webcam light up for a few seconds, and then turn itself off; in the meantime a photo will be taken from the webcam and we will be able to recognize who is in the room.
2) Making videos with the webcam
If instead of photos we want to make videos, the best program to install is Yawcam .
Being made in Java, we make sure that the homonymous environment is correctly installed on our PC, otherwise download it using the link here -> Java for Windows .
Once installed, immediately translate it into Italian by bringing Help -> Language and selecting the file to translate the program into Italian.
Once translated we can configure the start of the program and hide it from prying eyes by going to View and activating the Hide item on startup .
Now to make the recording just click on one of the buttons available in the main window: we will be able to record it by detecting the movement (as soon as someone passes in front of the Webcam, it will start recording the video), we will be able to choose whether to save the video in a file on the hard disk or on a remote server (FTP or HTTP), or alternatively enable direct streaming of the webcam (so that it becomes an IP Cam, reachable via the Internet).
In the latter case, nothing will be recorded locally, but everything that passes in front of the webcam will be accessible via the Internet, it is sufficient to know the port number, the IP address and (if configured) the access credentials for the webcam .
All settings for these features are accessible from Settings -> Edit settings .
For example, if we want to create our personal IP Cam, we can retrieve the port number and adjust the framerate and quality of the shots in the Output section (where we can also find all the other settings for the various options offered by the program).
Definitely one of the best software to be able to make periodic or automatic videos with the webcam on Windows.
In another article, we saw how to record videos and movies from the webcam, where we can find other valid alternatives to the two programs that we have shown you in this guide.
If instead we wanted to use the app integrated in Windows 10, I recommend you read the guide that we made on this app, reachable below.
READ ALSO: Camera app in Windows 10 to take photos with the webcam and monitor a room
