Usb camera, again

Hi
what s the latest trend about cheap usb cameras? Something on the 50-100 euros possibly with good dark light quality, possible hd. Maybe just stick to the ps3eye?
Suggestion?
Simone

hi,

ive had some very good experiences with the Logitech 920.
It gives you full HD @ 24 Frames but weve used it for Reactivision with 1600x1200 @ solid 30FPS which was very stable with fast movements in Reactivision.

With a distance of ~ 6-7 meters hanging of from the ceiling we have been able to track markers very stable within its field of view ( 10-12 x 5-6 meters ) The markers were about 10cm in size but could have been a bit smaller ( Using the Mini-Marker set).

Ive bought it after I read this blog entry from Elliot woods describing the older version:
http://www.kimchiandchips.com/blog/?p=564 (thx for this helpful post btw :) )

It worked very well in Dark lighting but as a next step we will be modding it into a Infrared Camera. :)

**edit its USB2 so we have been able to extend the USB2 cable with Active USB2 extensions ( the cheapest one available ) to ~20 meters without a problem. This was the reason to use a USB2 webcam in the first place.

1 Like

Hi
will I be able to hook up more than one at the same computer?

Hey,

in vvvv it should be working like any webcam, but ive never been able to test this. :S Maybe someone else has had some experience with this.

In Reactivision, for example,this would be impossible because it only seems to be able to select the default camera on your system. It works with any webcam or DSLR with an intensity shuttle but only if you disable your laptop webcam and all other cameras on your system in the device manager. Maybe im just to dumb, tried all kinds of settings in its config

Then it is up to the driver instructions as it is there where an ID is eventually assigned to each camera, anybody?
S.

from the Elliots blog

try e-CAM51_USB - usb camera may suit your requirements at your budget.

e-CAM51_USB, USB 2.0 UVC Camera Module enables 5MP still image capturing along with the 720p video streaming capability.

Frame Rate*
YUV2 MJPEG
VGA 30 fps 30 fps
HD (720p) 7.5 fps 30 fps
QXGA (3M) 2 fps 15 fps
QSXGA (5M) 2 fps 15 fps

Hello @gegenlicht
Could you by any chance tell me a bit more about your setup for tracking fiducials on a 10x5 m surface? I am trying to do the same but its not quite working as stably as i would like it to. Basically i can not seem to spot the markers at a distance more than 2m from the camera(which doesnt give me a wide enough angle for my setup which is 4x3 meters). I am even using the same camera :). Do you have any tips? Are you using the Fiducial tracker node in vvvv? If not, what are your settings in Rectivision? If you by any chance have an example patch or any advice that would be absolutely incredible

Hey @Maria_Yablonina

in this project we used reactivision via osc to vvvv:

i think using the new native fiducial tracking in vvvv should work just as well.

Here are some things that can help getting Reactivision etc to run more stable.

In the Video above we are using a different pattern set of fiducials. I think its now even included in reactivision.
in the reactivision.xml you need to change the default.trees file to change the fiducials to a less complex set with less ID’s, if thats possible for you. This will increase precision.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<reactivision>
    <fiducial engine="amoeba" tree="miniset.trees" />
    <finger size="0" sensitivity="75" />
    <image display="src" equalize="false" gradient="32" />
    <calibration file="default.grid" invert=" xy" />
</reactivision>

amoeba_miniset fiducials.zip (40.8 KB)

Here are the fiducials i used. There are only 5 IDs for white background and 6 for black.

If you need more ID’s there should be other sets around…

You also will need to create an even, non reflection hight contrast white / black print of your markers. ( can be other color but you need good contrast )

We built small LED-Boxes with milky plexiglas. The markers were cut out of non reflection black foil - it is important to leave enough padding around the markers, this will increase stability.

Instead of LED-Boxes you could try to use reflective material like 3M Scotchlite tape as White.

I dont have an example patch since its some time ago sorry.