How it Works
This service allows dog / cat / pet daycare / boarding providers to use their commodity laptop computers, tablets, and phones as webcams without any additional hardware or software, to allow their clients to observe their pets staying at the provider facilities.
Providers administer and broadcast their webcams directly from this website via registered accounts, while clients do not need accounts, and gain access to the webcams via the special 'view tokens' generated by the providers.
Webcam frame acquisition is accomplished with the existing video capturing capabilities of the Google Chrome, Chromium, and most Android browsers, and therefore no additional software is necessary. Furthermore, it is not necessary to install or configure any kind of "Flash", "Active X", or any other kind of browser plugin or driver. Since most computing devices already come with built-in webcams, no additional hardware is necessary either. The providers only need to permit their browser access to the webcam they want to broadcast with on their device.
Providers with traditional PCs without webcams can customize their PCs with USB webcams or similar. Providers wishing to utilize any of their existing proprietary video security equipment would still need to get appropriate drivers from the equipment manufacturer to interface their PCs to these proprietary systems. Regardless of the video system type, it must be accessible from the browser in order for the service to work.
Since the video frame acquisition process is facilitated with JavaScript, it is necessary for the providers to enable JavaScript on this website and on the website of the 3rd party credit card processing service Stripe to use this service. Clients also need to enable JavaScript on this website as the snapshot download and rendering is also facilitated with JavaScript; however, they do not need to enable JavaScript for the Stripe website, as the service is completely free for clients.
Cookies are required for providers to be able to login into this website. Cookies are not required for the clients; however, without the cookies enabled the clients will have to re-enter their view tokens each time they load this website.
A typical physical setup for a provider involves allowing video recording on their device for this website, which they will be automatically prompted to do by their browser, and then positioning the device in such a way that its webcam has a clear view of the area to be broadcast to the clients, such as a dog kennel, playpan, or yard. If the device is a laptop, it is placed on a high table top where it is not accessible to the pets, and its lid is tilted in such a way that it looks down on the pet playpen. A tablet or a phone is hung on a wall or attached to some post or column with a holder like a car dashboard mount or a "selfie stick" or similar, that allows the device to be pivoted to the pet playpen just like a security camera.
Frame acquisition is known to get suspended on some mobile devices when the browser application is no longer in the foreground focus, or when the lock screen engages. This behavior varies by device, operating system, and browser version, and is generally undocumented and beyond the control of this website. The provider may have to leave the browser application running in the foreground, and to also configure the device not to "sleep" or lock screen upon "inactivity".
The device being used as a webcam must obviously be plugged into a charger to keep working indefinitely, while its internal battery can serve as a backup in case of a power outage. The device should be connected to the regular office wifi network to broadcast the video frames. Mobile networks are not required, but are useful as backups in case of a power outage or if the local wifi connection goes down. But the provider should be mindful that if the device defaults to the mobile connection, then carrier charges can result.
Providers can show different areas of their facilities by simultaneously broadcasting multiple webcams, each webcam identified by its own 'label'. Trial memberships are limited to 3 view tokens and 3 labels. Paid memberships do not have these limits. Paid memberships, or monthly subscriptions, cost $20/month, and can be canceled anytime with a full refund of the last payment.
Credit card information is required for the free trial. Credit card numbers are stored, managed, and processed by a 3-rd party credit card processing service called Stripe, and are sent there directly. No credit card numbers are sent to or stored on the wagview.com servers.
Pet daycare / boarding providers are encouraged to try out this service free with no obligation to see if it suits their needs and the needs of their clients.