Camera Detector

A cross-platform command-line tool that detects both wired (USB) and wireless (network/IP) cameras connected to, or reachable from, your machine.

Table of contents

• How it works
• Requirements
• Installation
• Usage
• Example output
• Limitations
• Project structure

How it works

Wired cameras are detected using OS-native tools:

OS	Method
Linux	v4l2-ctl --list-devices (falls back to lsusb)
macOS	system_profiler SPCameraDataType
Windows	Get-PnpDevice -Class Camera,Image (PowerShell)

Wireless / IP cameras are detected by scanning your local network:

• Ping-sweeps your subnet using nmap
• Checks common camera ports (80, 554 RTSP, 8000, 8080, 8443)
• Cross-references device MAC address prefixes against known camera vendors (Hikvision, Dahua, Foscam, TP-Link/Tapo, Wyze, Ring, etc.)

This tool only inspects devices already on your own network — it never attempts to log into, stream from, or exploit any camera it finds.

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• nmap on your PATH (required for wireless detection)
  • Linux: sudo apt install nmap
  • macOS: brew install nmap
  • Windows: nmap.org/download.html
• (Optional, Linux) v4l-utils for cleaner USB device names: sudo apt install v4l-utils

No pip packages are required — everything uses the Python standard library.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/ranjansinghx/camera-detector.git
cd camera-detector

Usage

python3 main.py

Options

Flag	Description
--usb-only	Only scan for wired/USB cameras
--network-only	Only scan for wireless/network cameras
--subnet 192.168.1.0/24	Manually specify the subnet to scan
--json	Print results as JSON instead of a table

Example output

=== Wired (USB) Cameras ===
  - HD USB Camera  [/dev/video0]

=== Wireless (Network/IP) Cameras ===
  - 192.168.1.24  MAC: 4C:11:BF:xx:xx:xx  Vendor: Hikvision  Open ports: 80, 554

Limitations

• Network scanning requires your machine to be on the same subnet as the camera(s), and may need elevated privileges (sudo python3 main.py) for full nmap functionality such as MAC address resolution.
• Some routers isolate wireless clients from one another (client/AP isolation), which can hide cameras even on the same Wi-Fi network — check your router settings if a known camera isn't showing up.
• The vendor MAC list in detect_network.py is a small starter set. Feel free to extend CAMERA_OUI_PREFIXES with more vendors.

Project structure

camera-detector/
├── detect_usb.py       # wired camera detection (USB/UVC devices)
├── detect_network.py   # wireless/IP camera detection (LAN scan)
├── main.py             # CLI entry point
├── requirements.txt
└── README.md