Today, one of my neighbors had their house broken into. Their backdoor window was smashed, and the deadbolt forced. unfortunately, they had no security system and they lost some of their most precious possessions. This crime made me realize how vulnerable I am, and made me want to fix it; the only way I knew how: Technology.

I would like to announce a new project: A home security system. It will be based off of a webcam, in this case the Philips SPC315NC,
This camera will be fed through some motion detecting software, and should detect the burglar coming in through my back entryway.

The next important part is a usb rc car from Think Geek:
This will be the controller for the project.

Now, what if I took the chip out of the boring little car and used it to control something more interesting? Say for example.... A model Abram Tank?
I got this bad boy at a garage sale recently, and it is one nice tank. It came with a horrible remote control board, but I quickly replaced that with a Stamp to let it be autonomous. It runs beautifully, is an excellent platform for robotics, and is very menacing. It can even fire things at people :)

Finally, I'm using a small voice module I picked up somewhere. It has two 20 second messages, on board microphone, and very nice quality for what I paid. Paired with a stereo speaker, it will be the voice of my project. Finally, I will connect a few of my outdoor security lights to relays that my computer can control, throw in an alarm, and let that burglar get what he deserves!

I should have more details on this after Thanksgiving.
Have a happy Thanksgiving,
Mark