sshcam

Webcam live streaming in SSH terminal.

Quick Start

To preview the stream, run sshcam without the --server argument:

sshcam --color --size=1280x720

Note that you should run sshcam as an user with privilege to open /dev/videoX.

Start the SSH server with all default settings:

sshcam --server

Then on the client-side, run:

ssh [email protected] -p 5566 # Default login: sshcam/p@ssw0rd

There are some configurable settings for server, have a look at sshcam -h for more information. As an example:

sshcam --server --listen=127.0.0.1 --port=22222 \
       --user=john --pass=nhoj \
       --device=/dev/video0 --size=1280x720 \
       --color --max-fps=2

Requirements

• On the client-side, a ssh utility with 256-colors support is enough.
• Video device is supported by V4L2, which means the server is currently Linux only.

Installation

There are several ways to install sshcam.

Install binary from GitHub:

# Change <version> to a valid string
curl -sL https://github.com/kfei/sshcam/releases/download/<version>/sshcam-x64.tar.bz | tar xj
mv sshcam /usr/local/bin/

Build from source if you have a Go development environment:

# Build passed on Go version 1.4 and GCC version 4.9.2
go get -u github.com/kfei/sshcam
cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/kfei/sshcam
go build
go install

Build and run in Docker container:

git clone https://github.com/kfei/sshcam
cd sshcam
docker build -t sshcam .
# After built, you can run sshcam via the Docker container
# The privileged flag is for /dev/videoX access (FIXME)
alias sshcam='docker run -it -p 5566:5566 --priviliged sshcam'

TODO

There are still lots of interesting works to be done. Discussions and pull requests are both welcome. :)

• Port to other platforms: Maybe by using OpenCV?
• Better performance: Can the pixel rendering be more efficient?
• Even higher resolution: Try Unicode quadrant block characters 2596 to 259F.

License

The MIT License (MIT)