Introduction: Hidden Security Camera: Mask Edition

Security is a major concept that is incorporated into all aspects of our lives. We try to make our lives as secure as possible. With data being more and more important every day, people do not want intruders to get into their offices and peeping into their computer. This is what inspired us to build the CIHS Security System, also known as Camera Integrated Hall Sensor Security System. In this instructable, we will be showing you the relevant parts that are needed for the project, and we will also show a final rough presentation of how the project should end up looking like.

Step 1: Sensors, Gadgets, and More

The following is a list of things that you will need in order to replicate the project that is being presented today. You will need:

  1. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B V1.2
  2. Raspberry Pi Camera V2.1
  3. Micro SD Card
  4. Keyes KY-024 Hall Sensor
  5. 3D Printed Raspberry Pi Camera Holder
  6. 3D Printed mask of your own preference
  7. Electric Tape for fixing the camera and Raspberry Pi

Above is a picture that shows all the used items that are aforementioned on the list.

Step 2: Putting It All Together

The picture above shows the completed circuit for the Security Camera before it is attached to the back of the mask. The following are the steps you need to take in order to assemble the circuit:

  1. Before setting up anything, we had to set up the board so that both ground rows and power rows are connected. The long green wire by the edge shows how the ground rows are connected, and the red wire on the other edge shows how the power rows are connected. After doing that, we can proceed to the actual set up of the circuit.
  2. The white wire is connected from the power pin in the Raspberry Pi to the power lane. This provides power for the entire circuit. The purple wire is connected from the ground pin in the Raspberry Pi to the ground row in the breadboard. As for the short purple wire, that connects from the DO pin on the sensor to a further row, in order for the longer purple wire to transfer the input from the sensor to the GPIO pin on the Pi.
  3. The other small green and red wires are there to connect the sensor pins to the ground and power respectively.
  4. The last component of the circuit is the camera that is connected to its own allocated slot in the Raspberry Pi.

Step 3: Behind the Mask

The setup above is the setup that we had as our rough final draft. We are still working on improving it by 3D printing cases for all the equipment as well as making another "eye" for the mask so that the intruder would not feel suspicious. For this setup above to work, you would only need a battery pack connected to the Raspberry Pi and, in our case, we hung the mask right by the door, where the door had a magnet that when disconnected would signal for an intrusion. We set it up so that the camera would also make routine checks to take videos even if the connection was not broken. This way we would have a more secure system that routinely does checks in case of any malfunction.

Step 4: Wrap Up & Meet the Crew

This part is just up close and personal pictures of some of the gadgets in order to take a closer look at each one:

  1. The first picture is the camera that we used for the project
  2. The second picture is the Raspberry Pi
  3. The red sensor is the hall sensor called KY-024
  4. The last two pictures are when the camera is attached to the 3D printed holder we printed for it

We have shown you the mask in the previous step. These are all the steps needed to implement the CIHS Security System. Hope you enjoyed and let us know if there are any improvements that you would make! Thank you!

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