Introducing the TRENDnet TV-IP312W

After looking around for a while I found there are lots of companies producing inexpensive IP Webcams; knowing how reluctant companies could be with releasing the opensource components (or only releasing the bare minimum to meet the GPL license requirements) I needed to find something which I thought I stood a fair chance of modifying. In addition to this I need to find a cam with the following functionality.

1.Work well in low light conditions

• We don't want to have to be burning 100 Watts and blinding the baby just so we can see it sleeping (or attempting to)

2.Stream video and audio with mjpeg and 3gpp protocols

• We need something which pretty much already works with stuff we have - I don't have the time (or the knowledge) to build an entire streaming platform

3. Have a mechanism to monitor temperature or at least expansion which could be adapted to monitor temperature

4. Be affordable

• If she who must be obeyed (SWMBO) had found I had spent thousands of pounds on a fancy streaming platform I don't think she would be happy ;)
• We also have friends who are in a similar position, and it would be nice to be able to gift them a similar solution

With these additional requirements in mind (and including the requirements from the initial request); I decided on a TRENDnet TV-IP312W.

This camera seems to tick all the boxes; a quick trawl through the internet identified the following features:

• WiFi (802.11g) and Ethernet
• Video capture at 640 x 480 and 30fps
• Audio capture and Audio out (not even thought of using this)
• Streaming with multiple formats simultaneously
  
• USB port (add temperature module here I think)
• Works down to 0 lux with the support of IR illumination
• OpenSource firmware (downloadable from the TRENDnet website)

I looked around for a good price and as luck would have it found it for £99.00 (reduced from £145.00) at my local PC world, so I popped out and bought the last one in the store.