control wireless security camera using .NET program

Question

this wireless camera says it has motion detection amoung its features. link text

Can/How can I control such a camera from my .NET code? I want my code to be told when motion is detected so that the code can instruct the lights to be turned on ( that is the next question ). Or have the .net code tell the camera to look in another direction.

Basically, what features am I looking for in the specs that tell me how controllable the camera is outside of the provided browser interface? Do these cameras have built in web and ftp servers?

( FYI, I emailed Swann tech support with this question and got back a reply that said something to the effect of, yes we think you can control the camera, but we dont know how. )

Answer 1

If the vendor can't tell you what you need to know, how likely is it that we will be able to help?

Answer 2

One of the features is that the camera can send a mail when motion is detected.

If all else fails, you could write an app which monitors a dedicated mailbox or has an inbuilt smtp service, and raises an event when a motion detection email arrives.

You could probably control the PTZ features of the camera using a webclient control to connect to the inbuilt web server - but there might be a better way to do it.