How can I activate and use my home webcam remotely?

Question

I would like to be able to activate and see images from my home webcam when I am not at home.

I can connect to the computer with the webcam over the Internet using Live Mesh, so I can remotely see whatever the desktop is displaying. It would be sufficient for me to display images from the webcam on my home desktop.

Another solution that could worked is exposing this as a service. However, that would have to account for dynamic IP addresses and/or dynamic DNS, because I don't have a static IP at home.

One solution I'm using right now goes through Windows Live Messenger, but that is overkill just for displaying a webcam image.

Answer 1

Have you considered using VLC to create an on-demand stream (or timer based photo capture)? I am honestly not sure of the command line to make it happen - as it kind of depends on your hardware as well.

Answer 2

In case anyone else should stumble over this thread:

Preferred: http://camdesk.sf.net/

Alternative: http://www.bustatech.com/webcamviewer-a-simple-viewer-for-webcam/

Answer 3

This is not exactly what you were asking for... however this does the same thing.

http://www.amazon.com/Avaak-Vue-Personal-Video-Network/dp/B0020HRHOI

Answer 4

I dunno if this is the same in windows 7, but in vista you can open "Windows Photo Gallery", then go to File -> Import from Camera or Scanner

This should be the same thing as Printer and scanner wizard in windows xp and should give you a live shot of your webcam. Edit: you can get to windows photo gallery from the start search box by typing in photo gallery. It should show up in search results.