Trigger WiFi-enabled LED light bulb with Alert, or any better ideas ?

KiwiME

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I'm dealing with on-going break-ins of a retail shop under my residence and have been trying to come up with an idea to scare away potential thieves. I would like to stop them from breaking the glass as I have to pay for that ($400 a shot) irrespective of whether entry is gained. Stock subsequently taken from inside the shop is not really my problem.

Motion detection and audible alerts works well to notify me that someone is present but 99.8% of the time it's just someone innocent walking by. So far I've had to wake up from sleep on every alert at night and check the camera. Fortunately this only happens a few times from about midnight to 4am but I need to find a better solution. The thieves (being stupid young men - not professionals) are fairly easily scared off and I was thinking about some sort of audible alert played near the shop (on motion) that would scare them off without being too off-putting to innocent foot traffic. Perhaps a police radio communication type sound that makes them think there is a stake-out in place.

After not being able to come up with a clever way to enable that, I had the brilliant idea of using a WiFi-enabled light bulb in the shop that would be triggered from BI to switch "on" for a short time. I think that would spook them enough to make them think twice, although perhaps they would soon realize it's automatic?

I need a brilliant idea here that I can put together from BI 4, preferably without running wires. Thoughts?
 

fenderman

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I'm dealing with on-going break-ins of a retail shop under my residence and have been trying to come up with an idea to scare away potential thieves. I would like to stop them from breaking the glass as I have to pay for that ($400 a shot) irrespective of whether entry is gained. Stock subsequently taken from inside the shop is not really my problem.

Motion detection and audible alerts works well to notify me that someone is present but 99.8% of the time it's just someone innocent walking by. So far I've had to wake up from sleep on every alert at night and check the camera. Fortunately this only happens a few times from about midnight to 4am but I need to find a better solution. The thieves (being stupid young men - not professionals) are fairly easily scared off and I was thinking about some sort of audible alert played near the shop (on motion) that would scare them off without being too off-putting to innocent foot traffic. Perhaps a police radio communication type sound that makes them think there is a stake-out in place.

After not being able to come up with a clever way to enable that, I had the brilliant idea of using a WiFi-enabled light bulb in the shop that would be triggered from BI to switch "on" for a short time. I think that would spook them enough to make them think twice, although perhaps they would soon realize it's automatic?

I need a brilliant idea here that I can put together from BI 4, preferably without running wires. Thoughts?
Some thoughts,
BI can be set to send audio via a cameras audio out/speaker. You can use any sound you want in wav format...not sure if using a camera speaker will be loud enough, you might have to hook a powered speaker to the cameras audio out..(hikvision cube cameras are an option)...If the pc is not too far away, you can also simply use bluetooth speakers (get a usb bluetooth adapter for your pc if it does not have one)...
As far as a lightbulb, do a google search for blue iris and home automation systems like vera/zwave and you will find some folks have integrated them...
 

KiwiME

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I tested my camera's in/out audio connections but they don't work. I'm using cheap, off-brand cameras that have an outstanding image, but only the main h.264 stream works and there are minimal image settings available in the firmware. I think though, using the camera's audio is my best option as you say and it keeps that audio separate from the computer's sound. I just have to upgrade that particular camera to one with working audio.

Meanwhile the culprit has been caught and will appear in court next week on attempted burglary. But myself and the shop manager had to chase him down, request that he be interrogated and then convince the police that it was actually an attempted burglary, not just a window smashed in anger as the culprit had initially admitted to. Once they looked into it further they found he had a number outstanding warrants.
 
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