Today, technological progress has reached such a level that sometimes one wants to play God. Of course, we still cannot create people, but it’s quite possible to interact with units of technology. This article will discuss the theoretical possibilities of connecting to various webcams. Please note that the contents of this article are for informational purposes only, so remember that invading another person’s personal space, especially in this way, is punishable by law.
general information
Many people fear that a camera built into their laptops or connected to a computer might spy and eavesdrop. It should be noted that not in vain. And this can be done not only by them, but also by mobile devices, televisions and even household appliances such as irons (a scandal in the Russian Federation was with them several years ago). And now we’ll look at how to connect to someone else’s webcam.
Choose a tool
The necessary tools can provide the fourth version of the .NET Framework and VS2010. Also suitable for connection technology DirectDraw and MSDN. But to solve the problem within the framework of the article, the main attention will be paid to Video For Windows (VFW) technology. At the same time, WinAPI functions are widely used. Of course, these are not all the available technologies with which you can access the camera. But they are the most elaborated and perfect of the well-known and accessible to people.
Getting started
So how to connect to someone else’s webcam? Initially, it should be borne in mind that a device can have several devices for capturing images and sound. Therefore, care should be taken to select the tool with which to work. To solve this problem, we use the capGetDriverDescription () function.
It can take five parameters:
- wDriverIndex is the index of the video capture driver. It can take values from zero to nine.
- lpszName - the parameter points to the buffer where the corresponding driver name is contained.
- cbName is used to indicate the size in bytes of the lpszName buffer.
- lpszVer contains a pointer to a buffer where you can find a description of a specific driver.
- cbVer is the size in bytes of the buffer where the driver description is stored.
How to connect to someone else’s webcam? Ipb image can issue camera activation. Therefore, it is necessary to work on this. You can, of course, write a small code here that allows you to connect and control the operation of the device, but since this is an invasion of privacy, only a description will be presented. You can use C # to create the necessary program.
When working, you must specify the name of the function that connects, as well as write the name of the DLL where it is defined. To build all the individual operating time should use the class.
What needs to be done then?
We continue to find out how to connect to the webcam of another computer. The code may seem very easy to implement. What do you need to do? It was written above about the first parameter of the capGetDriverDescription () function, which can acquire a value from zero to nine. Therefore, you should run a cycle that will purposefully work in this range to find the values you need. So, we have a list of devices. Now you need to take care of the transmission of the video stream. The capCreateCaptureWindow () function will help in this, the main purpose of which is to create a capture window. What should be done in this case? Everything sounds corny - you only need to send messages to the capture window. The well-known SendMessage () function will help. But back to capCreateCaptureWindow ().
Capture Image
The capCreateCaptureWindow () function has the following arguments of interest to us:
- lpszWindowName is a null-terminal string that contains the name of the capture window;
- x is the location of the X coordinate;
- y is the location of the coordinate Y;
- nWidth - window width;
- nHeight - window height;
- dwStyle - window style;
- hWnd - access to the parent window;
- nID - window identifier.
As a result of the function execution, NULL will be received (in case of an error) or a connection will be successfully created. But keep in mind that since it relates to WinAPI, you must import it. With all this data, you can already start the camera initialization process. Immediately after creating the window, you can already try to send a message. If the result is distinct from zero, then this means that the attempt was successful. Then you need to identify and send messages on which a number of operations depend. So, it follows in order of priority:
- connect to the device driver, which provides video capture;
- make a break;
- copy frame to clipboard;
- if necessary, enable the preview mode;
- if necessary, activate the overlap;
- adjust the preview speed if necessary;
- if necessary, enable scaling;
- If necessary, set the call function for preview;
- Get a single frame from the video capture driver
- save the frame received from the camera to a file.
Well, that's all.
What about other devices?
There are more than computers in the world. If you are interested in how to connect to a webcam of someone else's laptop, then the described method is perfect for this purpose. Of course, if the Windows operating system is installed there. Fans of the "penguin" is not suitable. After all, there, as a rule, permission of the user for any action is required. And if there is a desire to connect to Linux, you will have to ask that a person allow him to follow him.
Of course, purely theoretically, he can resolve by stupidity or by chance. But in reality, one does not have to rely on this. If the question is how to connect to someone else’s webcam iPhone or Android, then a lot depends on the operating system used. And to speak even in general terms is very difficult because of their great diversity.
Conclusion
But nothing is impossible if you set a goal and work hard to achieve it. Take, for example, an iPhone. Phones of this series are considered well protected. And hacking them programmatically (at least officially) is impossible. But in practice, you can find a gap. The main thing is to search well. Suppose we make an application that transmits video to us. And under the guise of something, make the user download and install it. In this case, we will register the creation of a secret copy that will not be displayed in the registers. And that’s it. Let the user even delete the application, we will still monitor him.