Watcher

Most, if not all modern laptops and mobile devices are fitted with cameras that can record activity at high quality. Some desktop computers have built-in cameras as well, which pushed developers to create various applications like Watcher to help you monitor your home, or even your computer from a distance.

Once the application is installed, you can go ahead to check out the set of features. Make sure you connect a webcam to your computer, otherwise there’s little to no benefit from using this utility. The first step is to configure the camera you want to use, with a drop-down menu to easily choose in case more are available. Don’t worry, all settings can also be configured later on from the corresponding menu.

A compact main window shows up when you’re done configuring initial settings. They’re pretty intuitive to figure out, especially because of the helpful prompts that show up for almost every action you perform, at least for the first time. These are fitted with thorough descriptions, letting anyone quickly accommodate, regardless of experience. You notice there are four sets of playback and recording buttons. These let you record, monitor, listen, or broadcast, and can’t all be triggered at the same time.

Recording is the plain option that captures everything in front of the camera until you press stop. Monitoring can be used as a surveillance method, with action being taken only when movement is detected. Surveillance can be don from a distance with the listen method, which requires you to use RemoteView on another PC. You can broadcast video feedback to either a local server or one from a distance, by specifying connection details.

There’s also a log tab apart from capture. It’s used to view all shots taken, depending on the method used. What’s more, logs can be converted to AVI files. You might want to pay a visit to the settings menu as well, with tons of configurations to every area, such as motion detection, video input, server details, and more.

Watcher is a powerful application that can be used to perform various operations with a simple webcam. Starting with simple recording, motion detection, to broadcasting and monitoring from a distance, the application provides a lot of flexibility, and even though it may seem complicated, it can be used by anyone, regardless of experience.