[AG-TECH] Cheap Video Cameras

Ivan R. Judson judson at mcs.anl.gov
Tue May 28 20:18:35 CDT 2002


Hey Randy,

The question as I understood it was "How do I get someone online
cheaply, but not necessarily with a full AG installation?"  I was merely
suggesting that cutting corners to cut costs is a viable solution and
that if you aren't panning and tilting, bail on the expensive camera and
buy a fixed camera.  The cheapest fixed solutions I've seen include the
critter cam (usb) and the orange micro iBot (1394).  I have both and
have sent video successfully with vic from them.

As you suggest, I don't think we've gotten an "official" endorsement of
what a laptop/desktop solution is, but exploring the options seems a
prudent place to start :-).

It's not a lot of glue to make the desktop/laptop behave like a full
node (currently), the only thing that sucks is the lobby :-).

--Ivan

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov] On
Behalf Of Randy Groves
Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 7:20 PM
To: 'Sergeant A. G. Tech'
Subject: RE: [AG-TECH] Cheap Video Cameras


Has something changed?  I thought that the AG suite didn't support USB 
cameras yet.
Or are we talking just being able to get video to show up on the screen?

-randy

At 06:57 PM 5/28/2002 -0500, Ivan R. Judson wrote:

>Hey All.
>
>If you don't care about pan/tilt; or waiting for big frames to be 
>supported (full NTSC), just get any old webcam.  The intel usb camera, 
>the kodak usb camera, and most firewire cameras work good enough; just 
>don't set it for big frames or vic will crash (for now).
>
>Unless you are going to fiddle around with the camera a lot, just get a

>cheaper camera and skip the wintv board altogether.
>
>--Ivan
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov [mailto:owner-ag-tech at mcs.anl.gov] On 
>Behalf Of Don Lewis
>Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2002 6:31 PM
>To: Sergeant A. G. Tech; Don Morton
>Cc: Borries Demeler; David Hobbs
>Subject: RE: [AG-TECH] Cheap Video Cameras
>
>
>The capture card has a composite video input ( rca phono )
>and any ntsc compatible camera will work with it. I have used 
>everything from a small toshiba webcam, Closed circuit security cameras

>and the more expensive ones. A cheap and readily available starter 
>camera would be a camcorder. Still offers zoom and auto-focus as well 
>as auto-white balance and auto iris.
>
>just my two-cents...
>Don Lewis
>VRC/AG Tech
>LITTLE ROCK, AR
>
> >===== Original Message From Don Morton <morton at cs.umt.edu> ===== All,
> >
> >I'm helping a couple of good folks incrementally jump
> >into the AG world.  They both, theoretically, have
> >I2 and multicast, but no funds for an AGN yet.  So,
> >I've interested them in building a cheap "proof of
> >concept" system much like the one in my office (the one
> >that delivers those views of mountains and deer to
> >y'all), just so they can start to familiarize themselves with the 
> >basic software components, work out multicast issues, etc. while 
> >they're still waiting for Santa to bring them their real AGN.
> >
> >The one area I feel weak in is the choice of a video
> >camera.  I happen to use an expensive one in my office (costs more 
> >than the computer), but that's just because I happened to have a 
> >spare.  For these folks, I'd like to be able to recommend one with 
> >the following properties
> >
> >- CHEAP - remember, this is just proof of concept
> >- Compatible with the Hauppage video capture cards recommended
> >  in the AG hardware list, and of course the AG 1.0
> >  Redhat distribution.  In other words, I don't want to
> >  be having to compile new drivers, etc.  My "guess" is
> >  that the only drivers needed are those to interface with
> >  the Hauppage, and that the Hauppage is relatively
> >  "camera independent" as long as one has the right
> >  input (like S-video), but I'm not sure of this.
> >
> >Does anybody have a recommendation for a tried and tested video cam 
> >that satisfies the above?
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >Don
> >--
> >   Don Morton                   http://MRoCCS.cs.umt.edu/~morton/
> >   Department of Computer Science       The University of Montana
> >   Missoula, MT 59812 | Voice (406) 243-4975 | Fax (406) 243-5139
>
>Don Lewis
>Senior Computer Specialist
>Graduate Institute of Technology
>University of Arkansas at Little Rock
>voice: (501)569-8016
>email: djlewis at ualr.edu





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