Tweeting Laser Tripwire with Webcam Capture

Today’s DIY project is a self-tweeting laser tripwire with webcam capture. The device uses a normal laser pointer, an Arduino, a mirror and a light-dependent resistor. It looks pretty complex to me, but they describe it as suitable for beginning modders. When the laser is tripped, a nearby computer sends a tweet to the dedicated Twitter account and activates the webcam to record what’s happening. Check out the “action” video below:

To really make this an ideal security system you would need the system to actually upload the webcam capture along with the tweet. That’s because it does no good to capture video onto a computer that’s right in front of the door. Any thief who breaks in is going to see the computer right away and take it, along with the recorded video. Send that to the net! Cool mod though, the Twitter part is a nice touch.