TrackView

An old phone in a drawer contains a camera, a microphone, a network connection and a location sensor. TrackView puts those to work, turning devices you already own into a small monitoring network that you watch from any of the others.

The TrackView arrangement is simple. Install it on each device, sign every one into the same account, and each becomes either something you look through or something you look from. A phone propped on a shelf becomes a camera, and the computer at work becomes the screen.

No network configuration is involved. The devices find each other through the service rather than requiring anything opened on your router, which removes the step that defeats most people attempting this with dedicated camera software.

Watching, listening and speaking

TrackView sends live video and audio from the camera device on request, and audio travels both ways, so the phone acting as a camera can also speak.

That two-way audio turns out to be the feature people use most. Telling a dog to get off the sofa, answering somebody at the door, or speaking to a child in another room are all more useful than silent watching, and none of them require anything beyond the device already sitting there.

Camera switching, so the front or rear lens can be selected remotely, and the flash used as a light, mean the view is adjustable without going to the device.

Detection and alerts

TrackView watches for motion and sound, sending an alert when something happens, which is what makes the arrangement useful while you are not looking at it.

Recording follows from that, capturing what triggered the alert so there is something to review rather than a notification about an event that has finished.

Expect the usual false alarms. A curtain moving in a draught, a change in light as the sun comes round, and a passing sound all trigger detection, and tuning sensitivity is a matter of trial rather than calculation. For serious monitoring with proper zone masking and scheduling, iSpy is built for that and handles many cameras with far more control.

The device location side

Alongside the camera function, TrackView reports where each signed-in device is, which is the other half of the product and the half that needs the most care.

For your own devices this is straightforward and useful. A phone left somewhere shows where it is, and a laptop taken from a bag can be located.

Where other people’s devices are involved, the position changes entirely, and it deserves stating plainly rather than being left implied.

Consent is not optional

Monitoring software on a device belonging to another adult requires that person to know about it and agree to it. That is not a courtesy, it is the line between a family arrangement and something else, and in many places installing tracking software on somebody else’s device without their knowledge is unlawful regardless of the relationship.

TrackView is not built for covert use. It appears on the device, it is visible in the running applications, and it makes no attempt to hide, which is the correct design and not what somebody hoping for concealment would expect.

For children, the sensible arrangement is one everybody in the household understands, since a monitoring arrangement discovered rather than agreed produces exactly the outcome nobody wanted.

The practical constraints

Three things determine whether TrackView works as a standing arrangement rather than an experiment.

Power is the first. A phone streaming video continuously drains its battery within a couple of hours and runs warm, so anything permanent means mains power and a position where heat can escape.

Bandwidth is the second. Continuous video from several devices consumes a considerable amount, both at the camera end and where you are watching, which matters on any connection with a limit attached.

The third is reliability. Phone systems suspend applications to save power, and an application suspended is an application not watching anything. Keeping it running permanently requires working against those energy-saving behaviours, which varies by device and is the most common reason people find the arrangement unreliable.

For pointing an actual webcam at something from a computer that stays on anyway, Yawcam is simpler and more dependable than a phone fighting its own power management.

Conclusion

TrackView makes good use of hardware sitting idle. An old phone becomes a camera with two-way audio, alerts when something moves, and a view you can open from anywhere, all without buying anything or configuring a router.

Treat it as what it is. A phone is not a security camera, so expect to solve power, heat and the system’s determination to suspend the application, and expect false alarms while you tune detection. And where the location tracking involves anybody other than yourself, the arrangement needs to be one that person knows about and agreed to, which is both the decent approach and, in a good many places, the lawful one.