Linux cli, GUI & Daemon/Service App for Webcam & UVC to Telegram Chat!

camTGalert

Description

camTGalert is a Linux cli, GUI & Daemon/Service application that captures images and videos from your webcam, detects motion and sends notifications via Telegram written by Pawel 'okno' Zorzan Urban.

All Photos and Videos will be stored on Telegram! (Infinite Space!) :-)

Key Features

• Capture Photos
• Compare Photos
• Detect Motion
• Highlights Motion Area
• Video Record
• Daemon Mode To run as Daemon on startup
• Graphic User Interface
• Live Preview
• Easy configuration
• Configuration Backup
• Telegram BOT Connection
• Multi Thread
• Logging for SIEM integration
• Auto Cleaning Files

Tested on system Versions :

• Debian 12.5 bookworm <amd64>
• Debian 11.9 bullseye <amd64>
• Ubuntu 22.04 <amd64>

Tested with Python Versions:

• Python 3.11.2
• Python 3.9.2

Dependencies

These are the main dependencies:

• git
• python-telegram-bot
• opencv-python
• opencv-python-headless
• v4l-utils
• tk
• pillow
• telebot

Download & Install

To install the depedencies run:

sudo apt install python3 python3-pip python3-tk git v4l-utils -y

Now check if your Camera, Webcam, UVC(USB Video Class) device is correctly connected and the driver has a device:

v4l2-ctl --list-devices

If you see something like this, your camera should be on the /dev/video0 device.

HP HD Webcam [Fixed]: HP HD Web (usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.3):
        /dev/video0
        /dev/video1
        /dev/media0

Clone Repository:

sudo git clone https://github.com/okno/camtgalert /opt/camtgalert

Install Python requirements:

sudo pip3 install -r /opt/camtgalert/requirements.txt

Creating a new Telegram Bot

• Message @botfather https://t.me/botfather with the following text: /newbot If you don't know how to message by username, click the search field on your Telegram app and type @botfather, you should be able to initiate a conversation.
• @botfather replies with Alright, a new bot. How are we going to call it? Please choose a name for your bot.
• Type whatever name you want for your bot.
• @botfather replies with Good. Now let's choose a username for your bot. It must end in bot. Like this, for example: TetrisBot or tetris_bot.
• Type whatever username you want for your bot, minimum 5 characters, and must end with bot. For example: camTGalert_bot
• @botfather replies with:

Done! Congratulations on your new bot. You will find it at telegram.me/camTGalert_bot. You can now add a description, about section and profile picture for your bot, see /help for a list of commands.

Use this token to access the HTTP API: 123456789:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

For a description of the Bot API, see this page: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api

Note down the 'token' mentioned above! Is mandatory to configure the BOT!

Get Group ID From Telegram

You need a browser or the command curl, so you have to open the url: https://api.telegram.org/bot{BOT TOKEN}, no slashes in the URL path, ex:

curl https://api.telegram.org/bot123456789:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

You shoul see something like this:

{"ok":true,"result":[{"update_id":742342350,
"message":{"message_id":31337,"from":{"id":999999999,"is_bot":false,"first_name":"pawel","username":"okno_pawel","language_code":"en"},"chat":{"id":999999999,"first_name":"pawel","username":"okno_pawel","type":"private"},"date":1711954014,"text":"test","entities":[{"offset":0,"length":11,"type":"bot_command"}]}}]}

Now you need to note down the parameter "id"

You can use id, chat_id or group_id and the bot will publish images, video and messages on it.

Configure camTGalert

Copy the default config file to your new one:

sudo cp /opt/camtgalert/bot.config.default /opt/camtgalert/bot.config

Edit the configuration and set your Token and Group ID, to exit the editor press CTRL+X then Y to save the config file:

sudo pico /opt/camtgalert/bot.config

Now you are ready to go!

To run the bot exec the following command and take a look at your Telegram Group or Telegram Chat

sudo python3 /opt/camtgalert/camtgalert.py 

If you need it as a deamon:

sudo cp /opt/camtgalert/telegrambotcam.service /etc/systemd/system/telegrambotcam.service

To start it on startup exec the following:

sudo systemctl enable telegrambotcam.service

To start it as a deamon NOW:

sudo systemctl start telegrambotcam.service

To stop the running deamon NOW:

sudo systemctl stop telegrambotcam.service

To disable it on startups:

sudo systemctl disable telegrambotcam.service

To close the application just press CTRL+C and wait few seconds to let the ram clean.

Graphic User Interface

If you want to use the Graphic User Interface

sudo python3 /opt/camtgalert/camtgalert.py --gui

To quit the GUI, just press the "Close Monitoring & BOT Connection" button or press X from the titlebar or CTRL+c from the terminal and wait few seconds to let the ram clean. If everything is perfect you should see something like this:

okno@xuna:/opt/camtgalert$ sudo python3 /opt/camtgalert/camtgalert.py --gui 

camTGalert - Pawel 'okno' Zorzan Urban
             https://pawelzorzan.com

WEBCAM to Telegram Application GUI & Daemon
Connessione ed invio effettuate con successo
 >> Monitoraggio in Corso!
 >> camTGalert terminato con successo!
okno@xuna:/opt/camtgalert$ 

Paths, Logs, Files:

File	Description
/opt/camtgalert/	Default Working camTGalert Folder
/opt/camtgalert/bot.config	Default Configuration File
/opt/camtgalert/camtgalert.py	Main Application File
/opt/camtgalert/telegram_functions.py	BOT Functions
/opt/camtgalert/telegrambotcam.service	Systemd Service Registration file
/opt/camtgalert/video_img	Default Video and Image Folder
/opt/camtgalert/backups	Default Configuraton Backup Folder
/var/log/telegrambotcam.log	Default Logfile

Configuration Parameters

Variabile	Description	Type
time_recording	Set Recording Time in Seconds (Sec.)	Float
output_folder	Images and Videos Folder	String
max_storage	Max Storage Size in Gigabyte (Gb)	Int
log_file	LOG File full path	String
bot_token	Telegram Token	String
group_id	Group ID to write on	Int

Troubleshooting

To see the logs open another terminal or use tmux and run:

tail -f /var/log/telegrambotcam.log

Issue #1

If you see this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/camtgalert/camtgalert.py", line 12, in <module>
    from PIL import Image, ImageTk
ImportError: cannot import name 'ImageTk' from 'PIL' (/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/PIL/__init__.py)

Run this command to solve the problem: sudo pip3 install --upgrade pillow

Issue #2

If you use Ubuntu 22.04 maybe you will need the following Python dependencies:

- pyTelegramBotAPI
- opencv-python-headless

Run this command to solve the problem:

sudo pip3 install pyTelegramBotAPI opencv-python-headless

TODO!

• Optimize Threads and Loops
• Complete English Translate
• Complete Italian Translate

Contribution

You can contribute in following ways:

• Report bugs
• Give suggestions to make it better
• Fix issues & submit a pull request

Credits

Pawel Zorzan Urban alias okno

Contact	URL
Website	https://pawelzorzan.com
LinkedIN	https://www.linkedin.com/in/pawelzorzan
Twitter	https://twitter.com/pawelzorzan

Do you want to have a conversation in private? Hit me up on Telegram!