The most innovative ideas can often be hiding in the most unexpected places. Uncovering those ideas that could one day help to propel the security industry forward was the goal of the first-ever ONVIF Open Source Spotlight Challenge, which challenged the at large developer community to submit their unique, out-of-the-box approaches that drew from their experiences as developers rather than security industry specialists.

The ONVIF judges would like to thank all who participated in the challenge for their diligence, time and novel ideas.  By using these innovative approaches to create new applications for open source standards such as ONVIF, we are just beginning to explore the possibilities that complete interoperability can bring.

Here is a look at the winner and finalists:

The winning app, CAM X, submitted by Canada-based developer Liqiao Ying, offers an Artificial Intelligence-based object detection system that utilizes blockchain solutions for sorting information obtained from ONVIF cameras. With just a cell phone, users are offered a serverless solution that can detect 20 objects in real time and 80 object types for better accuracy.

In second place, RPOS Open Source Camera by Roger Hardiman, offers an ONVIF media service that is compatible with Synology Surveillance Station to allow the Pi to be used as a surveillance camera without the need for custom camera files. It can be used with a wide range of CCTV systems and with the ONVIF Device Manager and ONVIF Device Tool.

In third place, Open Camera by Elton Kola, is a simple application for Android devices that allows users to monitor one or more ONVIF supported IP cameras. The app uses Dropbox authorization, and uses it for storage and as a source to sync between devices. From the app, users can add and delete cameras, view camera streams, capture screenshots and videos and view previously captured media.

In addition to the winners, there were seven finalists, each with distinct submissions.

ONVIF Viewer by Casper Mejin aimed to create an open-source application for viewing ONVIF cameras for Plasma Mobile and Linux desktop, which previously was impossible. It is intended to replace the proprietary app that was needed to configure and view IP cameras.

Face Detector by Igor Diakov offers face detection for MacOS using ONVIF IP cameras.

ONVIF Scripting Tool by Mr Rekcuf provides scripting tool to query profiles, playback live streams and record live streams from any ONVIF camera.

Candere by Michael Bullington offers a simple server to view ONVIF cameras as an Android App.

ONVIF Camera Dashboard by Abhijeet Singh is a Django app for viewing camera device information, system date time, and system logs.

Media Configuration Dashboard by Alexandre Brochu enables remote connection to a camera, and the ability to save and delete login info and create and delete profiles.

Camera View and Capture Picture by Yash Sodha offers an Android App for viewing ONVIF cameras that allows users to take screenshots of videos while they are watching.