JGCASEY wrote: > The Artist Formerly Known as Kap'n Salty wrote: > > Newbie wrote: > > > I am doing some robotics projects but my main area of interest is > > > trying out several algorithms for the processing of the stream of > data > > > coming from the video. > > > > > > I am wondering what type of camera I should invest in. Either I > could > > > buy a web cam and hope I can find a driver I could either modify or > > > use. i.e. every frame is somehow stored on the computer > automagically > > > or I could buy a camera not unlike the AVRcam > > > (http://www.jrobot.net/Projects/AVRcam.html) or the CMUcam and try > to > > > do the processing once the data has been streamed to the nearest > > > computer ? or should I use an expensive video card, some CCTV > camera > > > and a frame grabber to digitize photos so they can be processed > > > afterwards. I expect my processing algorithms to handle at least 15 > > > frames per second framerate once they are working ont the final > set-up. > > > > > > My constraints are that I would like to avoid as much as possible > > > complex set-ups even if that means buying a more expensive camera > > > set-up. For the prototyping, I would like to try my algorithms out > > > using a combination of python and matlab (all very slow) and then > > > expect the same architecture (image files location and flow) with > > > speedier set-up like python+psyco or C. All the processing would be > > > done on a computer dedicated for that. Windows or Linux are > possible. > > > > > > > An easy approach to this is to use a wireless camera on your robot, > with > > the receiver attached to a frame grabber on a remote host. This > allows > > you your choice of camera (stand alone video transmitters are widely > > available), and you are not limited to only processing hardware you > can > > carry on board your robot. You also get full FPS. Frame-grabber cards > > > are inexpensive and widely available for both Windows and Linux. > > I wanted to go down that path but cannot get > information on how to access the images from > the tv receiver card in real time using my > own software. > > Do you use Java? > > John Casey Ever do search on Google? This was number 1 and 2 ;). I searched for "python video capture". I have used this module and it works well, it also has a really nifty ftp uploader demo script. http://videocapture.sourceforge.net/
hth, M.E.Farmer -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
