Viewing document resolution

Hi, apologies up front I’m not that technical;

I use wyze cams around the house but recently due to Covid I have a cam set up in my office; this cam is positioned to look down at a table top. My clients sit at that table and I sit about 12 feet away at another table. I use my phone to view the camera- which I use to view the documents that I then explain- this works great but I sometimes have trouble viewing the docs through the camera. is there a way to increase the resolution? or has anyone else (maybe notaries) had this idea and is there a better way to set this up? any advise would be greatly appreciated- thanks everyone.

No there is not. If you already have it at HD that’s the best it will do. Better lighting might help a little bit, as would bringing the camera closer to the paper.

But I think you’re using the wrong tool for the job. Even cheapo cell phones today have MUCH higher resolution than a Wyze camera. Just have your clients take a picture and send it to you (this can be a little trickier on Android) or set up your own spare phone where you have the Wyze now… Just some thoughts.

If you need the video stream and the cell phone won’t work for you, there are “2K” and “4K” resolution video cameras from many manufacturers including Eufy and Yi and Amcrest and more. They are priced slightly higher. Wyze does not make one.

thank you for the input- much appreciated I will do some research on 2 and 4k res cams. love the simplicity of the Wyze products though but you are right I think a different tool for this job. . . thanks!

1 Like

Similar to what @Customer said, if you want to experiment with a spare phone, check out a free app called Alfred Home Security Camera. I tried it long ago and it actually worked pretty well. Good luck!

2 Likes

Why are you not scanning or copying the documents for your version?

1 Like

Funny you mention that! :slightly_smiling_face: When I saw the original post and @Customer 's suggestion , the first thing I did was fire up Alfred and see how well it might work. My paid subscription for the HD video and Zooming features has long expired so reading fine print was a little dicey. But I was not using the best possible phone for the cam. So with a newer phone for the cam part, and the paid version, it might work pretty well.

Actually, what @angus.black suggested is what I do all the time everyday. When you look at most people’s phones, you see pics of kids, family, pets, flowers, etc. Mine is pretty much nothing but photos of documents and things I’m about to disassemble… :upside_down_face: And the “scanning” apps you can get for phones now are freaking awesome - some like ScanBot will even do OCR! :grinning:

I find the lighting such a pain to get right when document scanning with a phone. I tried several apps but none do a miraculous job. There is not a real substitute for the lid of a scanner/copier (unless of course you have a nice lighting setup for the purpose). It’s interesting that you are doing it routinely. Freehand?

Absolutely!! :+1: I will always run to the nearest scanner if available, but it’s so quick and easy to play James Bond and snap photos of documents in the field.

And yes, lighting and alignment is a real bear when trying for the OCR :angry:, so I mostly go with just photos and pinch n zoom to read.

1 Like