"Hiding" cameras

Have a look at some of the spy camera setups if you're interested in that sort of thing- mounting in smoke detectors, in wall power outlets, in coat hooks, in clock radios where there is natural space behind the aperture. I'm sure paintings are another possibility.

Eg.

I've already done that in some novelty items. E.g., I have several "worlds of wonder" animatronic toys scattered around the house that act as speakerphones (so the eyes and mouths of Mickey/Goofy/Teddy/etc. appear to react to the caller's words); relatviely easy to squeeze a small CCD camera behind their "eyes", in their nose, etc.

But, I was hoping for a more "universally deployable" solution. I.e., "I want a camera *here* to give me coverage of *this* area from *this* vantage point and a WoW 'toy' would look silly hanging on the wall!" And, a room littered with such toys would be sort of creepy!

[My wife's grandmother collected antique, bisque dolls -- each about 2 feet tall. For display purposes, they'd be mounted on a stand as if standing, fully costumed. Hands would be bound together as they're accidental banging into each other (or nearby objects) would shatter the porcelain. Imagine *hundreds* of the little critters lined up in neat rows and columns. All facing the back door (used by family members, only). You'd walk in and get the heebie-jeebies with all of those little dead eyes staring at you! <shudder>]

You also have to take into consideration line-of-sight obstructions, esp for "low" (eye-level) mounted sensors. (Up closer to the ceiling lets you peer OVER things -- but, you tend not to encounter many things "naturally occurring" at that height.

Think about where the cameras are mounted in banks, shops, etc.

Maybe some fancy cornice mouldings with (bat?) gargoyles in the inside corners? ;-)

On a sunny day (Sun, 1 Aug 2021 13:42:15 -0700) it happened Don Y snipped-for-privacy@foo.invalid wrote in <se70v9$iq6$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

All depnds.. I am using several Sony 'super had' analog PAL / NTSC cameras for security

30$ or so on Aliexpres, Those things see in the dark without IR just fine (starlight is enough). But is not HD OK. Use those in drone for target detection and tracking seeking out vaxers ^H^H^H^H^H^H sorry small: I have the usual movable Chinese with IR LEDs too.

The superhads are small enough to be build in invisible, had one in the front door. Big 4 channel Chinese analog input security recorder connected via LAN to a raspberry pi 4 and a 3 TB harddisk recording 24/7.

You have to decide what features really matter.

Things that are static and the same colour as their background almost disappear for most people. You can get some pretty small pinhole cameras but if it is for surveillance then that advantage will be lost if you also need great panels of IR leds to illuminate the scene. Ideally you want fast optics and a small compact physical size for this job.

Not very. Cost no object you could perhaps have a thermal band IR imager working through a thin veneer of pine wood.

<snip>

Laptop camera modules are small and flat. You can readily get 5 MP ones for a few quid, though 1 MP are more common. They're only a few mm deep obviously, because they fit in the lid, the PCB is maybe 8mm X 60mm. They mostly seem to be 3.3V USB which may not suit.

'Laptop camera module' on eBay shows loads.

Maybe something like vintage telephones, model tractors, cars, train locomotives etc to hide things in plain sight?

I had a look. The "camera" may be small but there's a fair bit of "support" that goes along with it; i.e., the PCB isn't very small.

I have some similar to:

Again, the camera is small but there's still some bulk "behind it".

And, I'd still have to get the "signal" to something that could analyze the scene in real-time. WiFi wouldn't cut it as it would be as vulnerable as my original RF-based scheme.

In my other camera-based applications, I colocate processing resources with each camera so I can just ship "location data" off instead of having to run, e.g, RS170 video to "elsewhere" (how many video feeds could that "elsewhere" handle concurrently?)

I don't think "smaller" is going to be the solution. I think I just need to find a way to hide most of the "bulk". If there were fewer of them, I could possibly place them in locations and *deliberately* expose them. E.g., I have several sirens in the house that are very prominently displayed (though not easily recognizable as sirens). I've packaged them in a way that plays off of other "appliances" that *can't* be hidden (e.g., smoke/CO detectors). But, I have a lot more leeway in where to site sirens as they work equally well if sited *here* or *there*...

Fortunately all cameras work as cats' eye reflectors, so they're not hard to spot with the right laser scanning kit.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

As stated, the goal isn't to "hide" them but, rather, to make them less of an eyesore.

Spend a few moments and you can clearly see and find ALL of them. But, they don't want to be the thing you remember about a "space". I'm not interested in catching you (a resident/employee!) doing something "illegal"; rather, I just want to know where you are.

By contrast, walk into a bank and the cameras are very deliberately visible. They aren't concerned with aesthetics (it's a BUSINESS) and want to keep pressure on you to know that "someone is watching".

When you go to the self-check at most stores, there's a video DISPLAY showing you your image as you are conducting your business. This, despite a sign informing you of surveillance cameras in use. Clearly, there are other cameras scattered around the store -- almost all of them are pretty visible if you just LOOK for them. Highlighting them is intentional; to keep you honest.

[This is why some stores have greeters -- because a "human interaction" with the store decreases the likelihood of theft (yeah, there are people who study this sort of stuff)]

How about using telephoto lenses, and a convex mirror on the ceiling? The cameras can be above eye level, and concealed from direct sight, but still see the convex mirror (which spreads the view out to cover much of the room).

For extra credit, correct for visual field curvature (project a grid onto the floor and use that coordinate system to train the correction, perhaps). A second mirror, or software, can correct for image inversion.

Few humans will bother to analyze the curved images in the silvery blob above, so the camera(s) can remain unnoticed. They'd be apparently distant objects in any case.

How do you "conceal(ed) from direct sight"? Perhaps if you had indirect lighting and could hide the cameras up in the sconce?

I think that would be even *more* "noticeable" than a bunch of ~5mm "shiny spots" on the walls! And, I learned there's a fair bit of processing involved in trying to compensate for optics (I have a HAL9000 at my front door that surveils and recognizes visitors. My first implementation used some junk optics -- intended more to represent the physical characteristics of the hollywood piece: "I can always compensate in software..." Bad move!)

I think I have a good packaging solution that will let me leverage the existing electronics. I'll have to see if I can, also, apply it to the cameras in the garage (doubtful that I an apply it to the cameras on the outside of the house as they are optimized for different operating and detection conditions)

The camera only has to look UP, so put a decorative bowl on a high shelf, and put the camera in the bowl. Only the reflection in the mirror is in line-of-sight.