Whole House Microphones By Tapping Into The IP Camera Mics Of All Of Them

[Simeon Tuitt]

Hi Guys,

I have been testing out an idea the last few days and I need a little help and input. I have IP Cameras all around the house and they all have built in microphones, now the mics pick up sounds incredibly, I can hear people even if they whisper across the room on them, when I login to them with my mobile app or even a program from tenvis I got years ago that is on my old computer but no longer available.

Now I am currently using iSpyconnect ip camera setting and the sound output on that isn't very loud for IP cam mics and doesn't appear to be adjustable, even with all sound settings up to the max on comp.

Now I have managed to get a virtual mixer set up which lets me record the system sounds, so I just make it listen to my IP cameras mics and send the sound into vox as the input, so I can be in any room and issue commands that get picked up.

Now my problem is getting the camera system audio up loud enough to be picked up by vox and actioned, I've been trying to find some IP camera software for windows 8.1 that allows the adjusting of the volume but those I have found so far seem to not have volume controls.

I recorded my voice commands and put the phone near one of the IP cams and had it turn my lights on and if I play one of my YouTube videos with commands and let vox listen to the system audio it actions them perfectly.

So its just IP cam software with actual volume control I need or a sound boosting driver. Since I am using a virtual mixer in place of windows speakers I can't use the bass boost option which increases audio levels sometimes.

I notice on vox there is a sound level marked, is there anyway for me to adjust that so its lower and maybe pick up the lower sound from my cameras coming through the system?

So any help you guys can give is appreciated.

Cheers.
Sim

[jitterjames]

Now I have managed to get a virtual mixer set up which lets me record the system sounds, so I just make it listen to my IP cameras mics and send the sound into vox as the input, so I can be in any room and issue commands that get picked up.
...
I notice on vox there is a sound level marked, is there anyway for me to adjust that so its lower and maybe pick up the lower sound from my cameras coming through the system?

Sounds like an interesting solution.   

What virtual mixer are you using specifically?  I would expect such a program to have volume controls.  Maybe the mixer you are using is the problem or maybe it has settings you have not yet explored.

VC does not allow for any volume adjustment.  Normally this is done in your windows sound settings for whichever audio input you are using.  It only shows the volume so you can know if your input is working and at a good level.  Normally the volume bar should only move to about 10 to 25 percent for best results.

VC normally responds quite well to low volume levels, as long as the quality of the audio is decent.

Boosting volume up from a very low level may work in specific cases but as a rule of thumb it will only reduce the quality of the sound and enhance unwanted noise etc.  Better to make sure the volume is not being cut down low at any point in the chain.

If you start with some signal at a nominal volume that we will call "100%", then you want to find a way to keep it at 100% (or possibly reduce it if it's too loud).  If it gets reduced to 10% and then boosted back up to 100% this will represent a severe loss of quality. 

[Haddood]

If you are using windows mixer ...
Check voice meeter ... You can use it as a mixer then direct the output to VC

[Simeon Tuitt]

Hi James, I am using voice meeter banana, it allows me to set one input that listens to the cameras from ispyconnect and use that as vox input. I am slowly getting there with the testing, the kitchen ip camera I have managed to get picking up my light commands and feeding into vox mic input to be acted on.

I have 9 ip cameras inside and now its a filtering process to test which ones work to do audio input, one problem with IP cameras is they drop connection from time to time and that causes a pop or signal to be sent which will be picked up on vox mic input.

So one camera in front room for some reason is giving major distortion when having its sound fed through (so not using that one), but the other one is fine, so now I need to go through all the cams and see which ones can be used for voice commands and had on at the same time.

I still need to fix the audio issue, for some reason with voice meeter banana there is a lot of background sound even without the camera mic input being on which is causing sound spikes which is making vox go nuts trying to interpret the sound.

Once I work out where the sound inputs coming from causing interference I will then be able to have less interference with vox mic.

I will keep you posted, it is a frustrating process, just when I get one cam working and start on another I get some issue which messes it all up. It is a rather long process but it will deffo be worth it if I pull it off. 

[Soda97]

Is voicemeeter similar to Virtual Audio Cable (VAC)?

If so, what's the advantage of using voicemeeter?

[Haddood]

Is voicemeeter similar to Virtual Audio Cable (VAC)?

If so, what's the advantage of using voicemeeter?

it is free .. .gives some nice interface ... with VB cable you get few virtual cables ... in my case enough for my needs

[Simeon Tuitt]

Is voicemeeter similar to Virtual Audio Cable (VAC)?

If so, what's the advantage of using voicemeeter?

Voice Meeter is a virtual mixer and the VAC are just drivers that give virtual devices, both are free and can be used together for input and output.

[Kalle]

here is a short overview what you can do with VAC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Audio_Cable

[Soda97]

Thanks.  Yea I have VAC, I might give voice meeter a try.

[Simeon Tuitt]

Hey Everyone, I said I would update the thread once I had done some tests with using the IP camera mics as whole house microphones for vox, well here's some information you can test out.

I finally got the audio from my cameras being picked up by vox, it all came down to using the SP version of vox which picks up audio great from Bluetooth and IP Cameras or any microphones basically.

The last few days I have tried out a number of different input options for vox, a plug and play USB microphone that cost me £2.50 (approx $3.89), with standard version of vox it picked up audio but misheard a lot, with SP version of vox its spot on with all my commands and has a 2 meter range although I am getting it to work from around 4 meters away.

I also grabbed a smart watch for £14 ($20 approx), got the U8 smart watch that just tethers to your mobiles Bluetooth connection, it has a built in hands free system so mic and speaker. You can link it to your computer by Bluetooth and use Voice Meeter to send the input into the mixer, output voice meeter into vox and you can then talk into the watch and control vox.

I also grabbed a Bluetooth handsfree speaker, I got the August speaker, it's tiny but super loud, it fits in the palm of your hand and has built in mic and speaker.

I added that to voice meeter also as one of the inputs so have the usb mic, the smart watch and the usb speaker connected, the inputs all go into vox.

The U8 watch has a 10 meter range the August has a little further range although advertised as 10 meters like most Bluetooth devices. I put the August speaker in the kitchen and it can hear me as I walk around the kitchen giving commands, so thinking of getting another one for the front room and leaving one in the kitchen.

The only downside of any of the Bluetooth devices, watch and speaker is you cant output the audio for vox to it or you get a loop as the mic hears itself and just echos. So I am thinking of using the Bluetooth watch or ip cameras for input and outputting to one of the Bluetooth speakers.

I've still got more testing to be done but thought you guys would like the update.

WHAT I AM USING:
Voice Meeter Banana
VA Cable A
U8 Smart Watch
August MS425B Bluetooth Speaker

The IP cameras I have discovered some are great for audio input and others are not due to connection, if you want to try and use yours to input the audio into vox, make sure you are using the SP version of Vox, you will need to be using iSpyConnect, set the Mics default listening device to voice meeter Aux to send the sound into voice meeter.

Set HARDWARE OUTPUT on voice meeter to VA Cable and input that into vox mic input, then try your commands out and see how you get on. You may just want to record an audio of 2 - 3 minutes of your commands and place next to your IP camera initially, that way if your connection drops a few times theres a chance of one of them being picked up, then you know its set up right and tweak from there.

IP cams tend to lose connection every now and then but if you get it working you could just plug an Ethernet into your cam and connect it to the hub if your cams allow that option and then you have a hard wired IP camera mic.

You will need to be selective about how many mics you have set up because once you open the mics with a command all input will go to vox so if you have a noisy kitchen with the machine on and you are in the front room and open listen mode I am guessing it is going to send vox a little crazy.

Let me know how you get on and if you have any questions drop a comment below.

One last thing, I haven't tried this yet, but you can probably cut out voice meeter banana al together and just use the VA Cable as listening device in ispy connect and send the output into vox as mic input, should work fine to send your IP cam audio to be acted on, but you will only be able to do one camera that way.

Sim

[Simeon Tuitt]

Hey everyone, I just did a quick video to show you me using my IP camera s a microphone to control vox, let me know how you get on if you test the same thing on your IP or security camera mic. 

Another update, I recorded this second video at 3am showing vox voice control with a U8 smart watch which you can pick up for around $20 online, has a 10 meter range so will only really work while in your front room, but still it's kind of cool to just speak into it instead of lifting a remote or an unsightly BIG mic behind the chair.

[fishware]

Hey Simeon Tuitt and everyone.

I've try similar as you do. I observed my rooms with ISpy (thanks to kalle). I split my room into diffenrent parts. This can easiely be done with ISpy. Clone the camera so often how many different location the room schould be have, in my case 4. Select in every instance an other section of the room to observe. When ISpy recognzied a movement in the section its raise a trigger to VC and I switch with VC.SetSpeechInput to the "sectormic".
I used all my old sometimes broken Headsets (wireless), Desktopmics, etc for this.

It works with old Desktopcamera. In my kitchen I use an older tablet with android an IP Webcam. It can also be included in ISpy. With this solution I can track myself in my home and switch mics, lights, sounds, etc.

The solution for lights an sound etc I will introduce to you in another post

the captain leaves his chair.

[jitterjames]

Sounds like a cool setup.  I'd like to see a video demo some day.

[fishware]

in progress......