composite sections of several windows into one

Question

I have 6 webcams that I want to show on one display, but there are issues. The webcams have proprietary plugin software that doesn't work with Firefox, so I have to use IE. I tried to use frames to load all 6 cameras in the same page, but the plugin will instantly break out of the frame. Currently I have 6 IE windows that overlap each other to show all the videos, but it looks ugly. The plugin prevents the ability to see the webpage source.

Is there another way to do this without it looking so bad? I have 3 monitors on this computer, so if there exists a utility like the Magnifier that can display sections on another monitor, that could work. I haven't found anything like that.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

If you don't mind some coding I think it would be possible with AutoHotkey. Here's an AutoHotkey implementation of Windows' screen magnifier to get you started, and also a simpler function to capture part of the screen.

A simpler option though might be to use AutoHotkey's WinSet, Region... functionality to trim away all of the IE window except the webcam's output. eg:

WinSet, Region, 50-0 W200 H250, WinTitle  ; Make all parts of the window outside this rectangle invisible.

Then you could move the trimmed IE windows closer together in order to create the illusion of 6 webcams on a single monitor/window.

You could also create an AutoHotkey script to start, position, and "trim" all the IE webcam windows in one go so that it felt like a single app.