How to take photo from the webcamera every time I open my MacBook?

Question

I want to autotake a photo from the camera on my MacBook Air and put the photo in a folder.

Is it possible?

Solution

Indeed it is possible. There are several command line utilities that you can use. I have setup a script in my Air to take a picture whenever it wakes up by using imagesnap.

You can run imagesnap from an applescript or you can use cron to schedule it to take a picture at a time interval.

Another option would be EyeSight, which is an app that automates the whole process of taking a picture and saving it to a folder (or upload it via FTP) every N seconds.

Edit: I misread the title of the question and thought you only asked for automated pictures in time intervals. To answer your question, that is, to take a picture with your Air's cam everytime you open the lid you can use a combination of imagesnap and sleepwatcher.

Comments

[fixer1234]

Thanks for the full disclosure and I realize that your incentive for answering this question probably relates to your app. That said, this is a link-only answer which will have limited value if any of the links become unavailable. You do start the answer with a link to a solution. Please add the essential elements of that link to your answer. That will make it an acceptable answer on SU so it doesn't get deleted as a link-only answer, plus it will show how much simpler it would be to just use Selfie App. Win-Win. :-)