ChumbySpy
by wrybread (community developer)popularity rank: 4
description: Watch random security cameras from around the world. Some aren't intentionally public so you get the occasional moment of voyeurism, but mostly its waiting rooms, country roads, coffee pots, elderly relatives, waterfalls, rooftops, backalleys, restaurants, walkways, birdfeeders, computer labs, confusing blurs, shopping malls, and the like. See the comments for some usage notes, and go to gizmoware.net/chumby for some more info if you're curious.
preview of 'ChumbySpy' app
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Comments
JimChumby
– August 04 2014
Hi - don't know if anyone is paying attention here since the great Chumby resurrection...but I have a question. Can we tailor how long we watch a given web cam? Sometimes it takes a while for the image to load, and there's little time left to actually see the image.
L0G4N
– January 08 2013
Love this widget! Very entertaining!
gumbo
– July 19 2012
still like it, glad to see chumby still alive
[email protected]
– September 07 2011
Really enjoy this app! I'm always entertained, and often amused and/or surprised by some of the views. Sadly, there are a few that won't load...but most seem to, and it's a great app to run a bit longer...try and see a bit more....
gumbo
– July 07 2011
love it. But lately freezing on 75 Madrid Spain
Sharan-Hari
– June 19 2011
nice!
robmiceli
– April 25 2011
# 449 what type office is that can they move cam into an office ?
ernest
– April 19 2011
This has quickly become my favorite chumby app. I love it. I want something similar for ipad!
Scott02127
– February 15 2011
This is one of the best app available! Watch the world on you chumby
wrybread
– November 05 2010
I just updated it, all the dead cameras should be gone.
Flizze
– April 13 2010
Cool. #18 has a birds nest in a satellite dish... this widget makes you actually stop and look at little things. and actually check back days later to see what your friends are doing...
husten
– February 16 2010
i ll donate too!
MartinN
– February 16 2010
I would be happy to support you in getting a new Chumby, wrybread. I am willing to donate 12 USD (got a Paypal account?) towards a new Chumby One. If only 9 other users of this widget do the same, we are there :-)
sptcox
– February 11 2010
Excellent - many thanks for that
wrybread
– February 10 2010
sptcox - I just ran my camera updater script, all the dead cams should be fixed. I agree that it would be nice to have saved preferences, but alas my Chumby recently died so I don't have anything to test on.
sptcox
– February 10 2010
Like most people here I love this widget! However, there are quite a number of dead cameras again, which is a shame. Can I ask though, is there a way to save the settings for the next session - for example, I like to have the cameras on random but each time the widget is reloaded it reverts to default settings. Great job generally tho!
Aunt Gargot
– January 06 2010
This is my favorite widget bar none! I love the web cams!
beowolf28
– December 22 2009
wow great one of my favorite widgets
wrybread
– December 22 2009
I got rid of all the dead cameras and added some new ones. I also made a page that shows thumbnails of each of the cameras, and you can click them to see that camera stream. http://gizmoware.net/cams/
aimsee
– August 10 2009
wowsah! this is my favorite widget! i'm hooked.
wrybread
– August 06 2009
I made some changes: it now defaults to non random mode, meaning it cycles through the cameras in order, but it picks the first camera at random. That's how I've always been using it so I figured I might as well make it default. And if you hold your finger on the previous or next camera button (i.e. the right or left part of the screen) it rapidly advances through the cameras. And I made a way for the camera finder script to keep the good cameras, so if people call out specific cameras I'll add them to the permanent list, which appear as the first few channels. So right now we have channel 1: the skatepark, channel 2: doggy daycare, channel 3: the other doggy daycare, channel 4: Castle Cam, channel 5: sunflowers!, channel 6: a campground in Norway.
wrybread
– July 28 2009
Rehbergs - thanks! You just gave me the motivation to update it, so all the dead cameras are gone for now.
rehbergs
– July 27 2009
This is simply the best widget ever made for the Chumby. I bought two new Chumbys just so I could dedicate one for ChumbySpy.
wrybread
– April 06 2009
I just updated all the cameras, hopefully no more dead cameras. I really need to work out how to have it load the cameras off a webserver so this can happen once a week or so.
sishogan
– February 06 2009
#562 is a candy factory!
josep
– January 11 2009
This widget is great! One comment: I think the widget continue to move through the cams if the user still has the finger pressed to the chumby. In "flash speak": don't wait for another onPress to toggle but instead keep ttoggling until an onRelease.
crazymatt1
– January 02 2009
This is probably my favorite widget. Since my office is in the bowels of a hospital, I will literally go weeks during the winter without seeing the sun. This is like having a tiny porthole in my office! Thanks for the work!
wrybread
– December 29 2008
To Michael Zahn, below this comment: Agreed, the ability to enter camera numbers manually would be nice. In the meantime, what I do when I want to go to a specific camera number is keep going to the next camera until I get close, then turn off randomization and autocycling, then advance until I get to the right camera.
Michael Zahn
– December 25 2008
I love #16, which pans through an intersection in a town in Poland. I wish there were a way to specify which site number I want to watch, rather than tap madly hundreds of times to get back to good old #16. This application rocks, even so!
sishogan
– November 25 2008
As President of the ChumbySpy Fan Club, I thank you for all your hard work!
wrybread
– November 20 2008
Update: I really need to stop working on this damn thing, but note that on the options panel you can now see a list of the previous 3 cameras. Handy for when you want to return to a previous camera.
wrybread
– November 20 2008
Usage notes: touch the question mark to set a couple of options, touch the top left of the screen to toggle autocycling, the bottom area to show the URL and camera number, the right area to go to next camera, and the left area to go to previous camera.
wrybread
– November 17 2008
Big update: ChumbySpy now tries to get the city and country for each camera as listed in the hostip.info database. Gets a location about half the time, super cool when it does. And the camera builder script now searches google for a bunch more security cameras: Axis, Panasonic, Evo, Sony, Netsnap, Canon, Mobotix, and a few others. The new google searches are usually the higher number cameras, above #450 or so.
wrybread
– November 05 2008
Update: I figured out how to tell the Axis and Panasonic cameras to deliver images in 320x240 instead of the default 640x480, which should mean most of the cameras are much higher framerate than before.
wrybread
– November 03 2008
Update: I changed the time for each camera from 15 seconds to 35 seconds. That's my preference, let me know if you think there should be some configuration for how long it stays on each camera.
sishogan
– October 06 2008
Yay! New cams! Now I may never sleep...
wrybread
– September 30 2008
Cool! Channel 3 is a skatepark...
wrybread
– September 30 2008
I added a metric crapload of new cameras (that's 410 for people who don't know metric) and got rid of all the old dead ones, so its now a very happy ChumbySpy...
sishogan
– March 28 2008
That's no walrus, it's Snooty the Manatee, live from the South Florida Museum! Love the update.
wrybread
– March 28 2008
I just uploaded a new version which should load images as fast as bandwidth will allow. Fixes a couple other little issues too. And I put the sourcecode on gizmoware.net/chumby. Still some glitches, the biggest being that that if you watch it on this webpage occasionally you get a request for a username and password that stubbornly won't go away. Not the biggest deal since it doesn't affect the Chumby version, but still. And I have a new favorite camera: #29 is a walrus tank or something with constant walrus action.
allayrizzle
– March 18 2008
they just look like a bunch of pictures to me.
waverider
– March 08 2008
It shows an analog clock in virtual chumby is that correct?
sishogan
– March 08 2008
Thanks for the tip! Right now I am watching a match on the college soccer field.
wrybread
– March 07 2008
By the way I should say these are all Axis networked security cameras. They have a unique URL pattern and so are <a href="http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=+%22inurl%3Ajpg+image+jpg+r%22&btnG=Search">searchable via Google</a>.
wrybread
– March 07 2008
Yeah I like the doggy daycare too. As I type someone's sweeping up all the doggy hair. I have this incredible urge to heckle her. Oh well, maybe with next year's security cameras. (And if you want to go straight to that camera, in the current version it's camera #17. You can see camera numbers by tapping the bottom of the screen. Then tap the top left to stop autocycling, then tap middle left and middle right to manually cycle thru the cameras.)
sishogan
– March 07 2008
I can't stop watching this - I keep waiting for the doggy daycare to cycle back!
gingerbeardman
– March 06 2008
Very nice concept!
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