Create long-term time-lapse photos of subdivision construction site using an old iPhone?

Question

• My window has a vantage point of 8 houses about to be built across the street.
• I have an iPhone 4S gathering dust.

I'd like to create a time-lapse video over the next 6 to 10 months by mounting the phone in my window (keeping the charger plugged in.)

I'm an Android user, unfamiliar with iPhones and any potential built-in solutions, except I know the default camera's time-lapse feature won't work since it compresses it's output to always be under one minute.

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I'm trying to find an app to, perhaps:

• take a picture every 15 minutes, and,

• to avoid running out of storage space (while not disturbing the phone), auto-delete the image after either:

  • auto-save each image to a cloud location (anything "free" is fine), and,
  • auto-email each image to me and delete from the phone if necessary

Also, not mandatory but would be handy if it also:

• only captured on schedule (ie, M-F 07:00-17:00) or only if there's been motion.
  (if not, I can manually delete unneeded ranges from the cloud)
• ideally, auto-post a compiled MP4/GIF/etc on my website as it's created.

Thoughts?

(Finding apps that will run "every 15 minutes indefinitely" has been tough enough (and the ones I've tried have other issues), and I can't find any that will auto-upload and free up the storage.)

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Afterthought:
Bonus Question: sooner or later, the construction site's going to need night-time security and I suppose I'd be perfect for the job - especially if I could have the phone alert me to motion on the site on evenings and weekends?!

I'd also welcome any comments with suggestions on mounting the phone in the top corner of the window without damaging the (rented) window frame. So far, I'm thinking duct tape, but it will get hot in the sunshine and might give way.

Answer 1

Do a google search for 'use your old iphone as security camera' This gives you motion detection. and 'iphone time lapse' Your problem will likely be finding an app that will run on the older phone.

The autoupload is the hard one. For that I suggest you jailbreak your phone. That allows you to access your phone remotely via ssh. Another computer on your local network can pull and delete images.

For securing the phone, try a rubber jawed wood work clamp on the window frame, and a a cushion pressing it to the glass.