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The current iteration of Democracycam is designed to opportunistically join a shared open WiFi network with other Democracycams and automatically distribute any photos taken across the network as soon as they are captured.
This is done in the simplest way I could come up with, using built-in Linux functionality whenever possible and using the excellent Forban software to handle the distribution of images.
Currently the only code provided is for creating a very basic (and not very good) image preview & capture using the Raspberry Pi-based hardware, documentation on the rest of the configuration is yet to come.
At some point other devices & platforms could be supported, but I have some ideas that require lower-level access to the hardware than I think is possible using off-the-shelf devices like smartphones, etc.
I learned a lot from the first attempt at developing this device, but so much has changed that I think it's time for a new device with a similar mission.
I've been noodling on exactly what that is, and I have a few ideas I like. Once I get some traction I'll be starting a new project and I'll post a link here.
I'm working on another project which is developing a distributed filesystem that runs under node.js. It may be a good fit for the underpinnings of Democracycam if I can make node.js perform well on the Raspberry Pi (without severe resource consumption).
Still in the testing phase, but I thought I'd mention it in case anyone was looking down this path.
Gave the Adafruit-designed printed camera case a try, it's very well-designed, but doesn't quite fit the hardware I have. I'm planning to pick-up a complete set of hardware from Adafruit for two cameras so I can build some field-ready units to really test and debug the software, which should run about 300ドル.00.
Now just to find a wealthy benefactor to underwrite the R&D ;)
Looks like Adafruit has done a lot of the work for me while I took a break from this project. The most time-consuming bits when I started out were fighting through getting the touchscreen to work with the camera, and it looks like they've wrapped all that up in a nice set of instructions here:
They also offer a board that could take the place of the one I'm using (seems to work in a similar fashion, but has the software/drivers/kernel stuff figured out for you):
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1601
Finally the O/S support for the Pi camera has improved much, so now it looks like getting it to work is simply a setup option, sweet!
Based on all this I'm going to re-cobble my hardware and put together a software stack based on what's now available. Once that's done I'll be turning my attention to the parts of the software that are not off-the-shelf (handling the network transparently and the Forban configuration). I may also be able to pick up a second camera worth of hardware now that I have a convenient place to buy it all...
Hardware-wise the case and battery still need to be sorted out, so there's work to do. I also want to investigate some of the other tiny ARM platforms that have come out since I originally embarked on this project, as well as other types of devices that might participate in the network (storage-only nodes, mobile network uplinks, etc.)
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It looks like this project has gone stale, but...
What type of network are you creating? You mention both mesh and ad-hoc. The former implies some sort of structure to the network in which there is dedicated routers with devices that come and go at their whim. However, an ad-hoc network connects multiple devices together without the need for structure. If you are using the latter, which I assume is the case since it fits the description, how exactly are you creating the network to allow multiple-hop connections using WiFi? In my experience, it is quite difficult to get multiple devices to connect to the same (truly) ad-hoc network programmatically, at least using Linux drivers. Granted this application seems a little simpler: copy this data to all devices I see.
Also, someone mentioned using a frequency band other than 2.4GHz. If you're interested, you might want to look into a DSSS (or other spread-spectrum modulation technique) that uses random modulation to secure the transmission. 802.11b uses DSSS, but its purpose is more to reduce interference than as a security measure.
to follow this project and never miss any updates
Today, in 2023 your system would be very Usefull
We are at the fate of a WWIII and we see in real time Israël cut all communication in Gaza so the WEST don't know what killing has taken place there.
So your system can't be using radio like Wifi it would be spoted and probably destructed.
I'd say there is no much left to communicate safely. Maybe a laser could aim far enough to be seen and copy the records of your device ? But then who/how would someone pick it up ?
The radio/internet Lock also happened in Paris in some situation, to block the population from organizing against the regime decisions.
Your project resemble to a spy project, or that could be used by any foreign country in an attack to disorganize a regime, right or wrong.
I happend to have an interest in your search for an even heartache situation: in case of a 4Nat, where there no more radio to emit, no more power to energize. This happened for one whole week in the french west indies in 2017 XMartin.
#HAND hacker against natural disaster has born from that.
You can contact for any reason.
I am MARSU from the FdG