Smartphone as Webcam with Free Software?

Bernhard E. Reiter bernhard at fsfe.org
Mon May 4 08:40:25 UTC 2020


Am Donnerstag 30 April 2020 22:53:41 schrieb Dmitry Alexandrov:
> Hold on, we are not finished yet. :-)

(-:


[Step: setup USB network connection GNU-System <-> *droid device.]

> > Am Mittwoch 29 April 2020 18:10:22 schrieb Dmitry Alexandrov:
> There is a dozen ways to configure networking in GNU.  Until I know which
> you are using, I canʼt tell you anything but the obvious thing, that youʼll
> have to make sure that _default route_ is bound for wherever you are want
> to.

If this is going to be a general guide, I'll guess that it'll have to support 
network manager and a root command line. What wever Ubuntu does, when you 
plug-in an Android usb device.

> >> Why do you need encryption if you are going to use USB connection?
> >
> > Good point, for USB this is not needed.
>
> Itʼs actually hardly needed for wireless LAN either.

In many situations, traffic on the WLAN is not secure from eavesdropping,
so at least I would feel better with an encrypted default.
(Example situations: WLAN at a drink chocolade shop; still using WPA2 with 
a "weak" password; one of many devices in the local WLAN is rogue.)


[Step: making incoming video/audio stream a device for other apps]

> Have you googled it?  Making RTSP stream into virtual video device is a
> rather common task.  Keywords are ‘v4l2loopback’ and ‘GStreamer’.

Not yet https://metager.de/ ed it, as I was stuck earlier. Short search
did not reveal a howto that was usable right away. (But lots of details, which 
I personally could potentially use, so thanks for the right keywords.)

> Sure, it would be very apt to make whatever youʼll achieve into a
> comprehensive guide. ;-)

I fear I personally won't have the time for this.
(This is why I did ask initially: I had hoped there were guides around 
already.)


[Securing the phones listening network device.]

> In my experience, *droid (LineageOS if distro matters) does not flush
> ‘filter’ table, so it would be fine to just add them at startup.

A search seems to reveal that most *droid devices will not have an iptables
command ready to be used. (old infos from 
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4577268/iptables-in-android )

> But dealing with so complicated and unfriendly system as *droid you never
> can be sure.  I would ask this again at some *droid-related m/l.

:D

Best,
Bernhard

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