asjidkalam/cameras_robonomics

Using Robonomics tools to control IP cameras

Cameras for Transparent Production Under Robonomics Parachain Control

This repository is an example of using Robonomics tools with single-board computer, IP camera and label printer to demonstrate providing trustworthy production surveillance

Record video, store it in IPFS and send hash to blockchain. Optionally print sticky label with qr-code link to pinned video

Used hardware

• RaspberryPi4 2 GB with Ubuntu 20.04 installed;
• IP camera Hikvision HiWatch DS-I200C + power supply/PoE injector;
• Label printer Brother QL-800;
• Optional: Wi-Fi router Mikrotik RB941-2nD for scalability (e.g. add more cameras), remote access or stable Wi-Fi connection;
• Tumbler for triggering recording. Generally, GPIO may be used with other hardware.

Used services

• Pinata as a pinning service to widely spread video over IPFS;
• YOURLS to print qr-codes with short predefined links.

Used software. This is to be installed on RaspberryPi4, connection to which may be established by yggdrasil + ssh

• Python 3;
• Robonomics binary file (download latest release here);
• FFMPEG

sudo apt install ffmpeg

• IPFS:

wget https://dist.ipfs.io/go-ipfs/v0.6.0/go-ipfs_v0.6.0_linux-arm.tar.gz
tar -xvf go-ipfs_v0.6.0_linux-arm.tar.gz
rm go-ipfs_v0.6.0_linux-amd64.tar.gz go-ipfs_v0.6.0_linux-arm.tar.gz
sudo ./go-ipfs/install.sh
rm -rf go-ipfs

• RPi.GPIO

sudo apt-get -y install python3-rpi.gpio
sudo usermod -G dialup -a $USER

• brother_ql software

pip3 install brother_ql
sudo usermod -G lp -a $USER
#reboot
sudo reboot

Preparations

1. Install [Ubuntu 20.04] on RaspberryPi4;
2. Install all the software;
3. Set up IP camera. It should have a static IP to put it in configuration file. HD quality is recommended for less file size. Feel free to adjust OSD info. You may need windows to set it up for Hikvision;
4. Set up YOURLS server;
5. Set up a printer. For this case, you can follow this manual
6. Solder a tumbler to 5V (PIN4), GND(PIN6) and GPIO18 (PIN12) (in this example) pins on Raspberry Pi;

8. If you use router, set it up to connect camera to RaspberryPi4 and connect router to the internet;

To run:

1. Download source code and install additional python libraries:

git clone https://github.com/PaTara43/cameras_robonomics
cd cameras_robonomics
sudo pip3 install -r requirements.txt

2. Specify all the information in configuration file.

nano config/config.yaml

It has comments for better understanding. Read them carefully. All the information about creating accounts may be found here. To send transactions between accounts they should have some tokens.

3. Launch script

python3 main.py

4. Now you can start and stop recording with a tumbler. May need some debugging to find out which position is ON and OFF.

How it works

Tumbler stands into ON, camera creates a short URL redirecting to nowhere (IPFS gateway with no hash), creates a qr-code with this short URL, prints the qr and starts filming. Once tumbler is switched to OFF, camera stops filming, publishes video to IPFS, changes short URL redirection link to gateway with hash address of the video and sends the video to Pinata pinning service for wider spreading over IPFS. IPFS hash of the video will be available on Robonomics platform Chainstate->datalog->CAMERA account and stored there securely.

Auto-start

You may want to auto-restart this script. To be able so, edit service file

nano services/robonomics_cameras.service

and fill it with path to python3 and the script. Don't forget to fill in username. E.g.:

ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /home/ubuntu/cameras_robonomics/main.py
User=ubuntu

Then move it to /etc/systemd/system/ and run:

sudo mv services/robonomics_cameras.service /etc/systemd/system/
systemctl enable robonomics_cameras
systemctl start robonomics_cameras

To check service status do:

systemctl -l status robonomics_cameras