List of webcams that don't work
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Decided to list the following webcams that I couldn't get to work 'out of the box' (or at all, for that matter), so as to save some people time/money/effort, I recommend we start listing those cameras that just don't work.
So. . . :
PS3 Eyecam
PS2 Eyetoy
Kinect v1.0
Logitech Quickcam Communicate STX (Model No. V-UBK45)
Logitech Quickcam Orbit (Model No. V-UU22)
Creative Labs Live! Cam Video IM Pro (Model No. VF0230)Kind of disappointed that nothing seems to work
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Hi @Theodore-Borromeo, It seems that the cameras you listed only supports output in YUV, which is not supported by
mjpeg-streamer, which requires input in mjpeg (otherwise it will have to convert YUV to mjpeg using Omega's limited computing power). What I have been able to do with the PS3 Eye is to stream (viamjpeg-streamer) very low resolution videos (64x48).
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HD3000 from Microsoft works ok with mjpeg-streamer
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@Boken-Lin It's not even that mjpeg steamer doesn't work. The above cameras don't seem to enumerate /dev/video nodes on my device.
Is there a quick tutorial for how you set up a working off the shelf camera?
Also, as a hack, you may think of making 'streams' by continuously sending snapshots from the camera at 15/30/45 fps. . .
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The PS3 Eyecam I found to be recognized by the omega, but as said, the omega just doesn't have the horsepower. The Pi2 can do it.
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@Theodore-Borromeo Is there specific features you want other than streaming and taking snapshots? I can write up a tutorial with Logitech C920.
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@Boken-Lin I think, for me, some sample code of how you would actually capture 640x480 grayscale images from a continuous stream would be ideal. I'm still working on getting compatible opencv libs loaded, but once that is finished, would love some sample code for grabbing the raw matrix data from a stream say that I could then hack together simple motion detection. But really, I just want a way to get plug and play webcam support from some camera (as close as Linux can get, anyways)
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@Theodore-Borromeo I found the Logitech C270 to work plug and play. I posted this on an older forum post. I could use it to stream or take a photo.
The good news is that a Logitech C270 works. I got it at Microcenter openbox for $15
[ 1849.270000] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device <unnamed> (046d:0825)
[ 1849.380000] input: UVC Camera (046d:0825) as /devices/platform/ehci-platform/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/input/input0
root@Omega-030D:/# ls /dev/v*
/dev/video0
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@Chris-Ward Thanks for the pointer. Though I'm trying to, with this thread, get to the lowest common denominator wrt price and feature set for webcams. If Onion Omega is meant for IoT, then the first order of business (imho) would be enabling IoT at a lower BOM. C270, openbox or not, costs more than the platform itself. I mean, this is ignoring the fact that I can literally buy an android phone for $10 from walmart and have a lot more components already integrated
I'm pretty sure though that, thus far, the c270 seems to be the cheapest. I may have to buy it just to open it up and dissect what type of board it has. Just ordered it for $21 from some google shopping site
We'll see what we can see once it arrives.
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Here is a thought why don't we list the ones that do work?
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@Theodore-Borromeo you are correct. I am looking at doing a FOV for a robot I am building. I see lots of people just sticking an android phone on the front. That I feel however is cheating, even though it might be cheaper. And it won't run OpenCV.
I understand where you are coming from too though. I was shocked at the price of web cams. I haven't bought one before. I figured I could find a year or two ago's models for cheap, but it is hard to know if they will work. (hence this thread?)
Maybe what we need is a "cheap webcams that work" thread if that is your goal (I would love to find that $10 web cam myself)
My C270 worked out of the box with the onion platform to stream video (for a rear van camera project). Getting it running on a RaspberryPi to stream was really difficult. (motion and opencv are not really streaming packages, and the one that comes on the onion took a lot of compiling on the pi) So I will just use the onion and the C270 for that project. For the robot, I just ordered the more expensive 'official' camera. I know that opencv is well supported there, and for now, I will just use the pi for the dedicated cam and opencv for the video FOV and face recognition for that project.
Good luck though.
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@Chris-Ward Yeah, I agree that it is 'cheating' for purists/hobbyists, but we can't preclude economic facts for mass production. I mean, even if that weren't the case (since once you get a prototype working, you apply for funding and mass produce with specific BOMs anyway), opencv can be run on android phones. Their arm processors are more than capable, and arguably, it'd be much simpler to do as opencv itself does support android.
But yeah, I do acknowledge that streaming isn't supported by opencv out of the box. My idea is to have a low greyscale resolution and crank up the amount of snapshots I take per second. I'd then run classification over a series of stills to determine distance/faces/objects from a single camera system.
My overall goal is to simulate Tesla's 360 degree sonar ranging system for my own car. I can probably only run one camera per omega, but if I can prove out a system that can do the above, scaling will be the next step
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@Theodore-Borromeo I will include capturing grayscale images in the tutorial.
What kind of price point are you looking at for webcams? If your application doesn't require HD streaming, I should be able to source some fairly cheap webcams from China for you.
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@Boken-Lin Thanks, but I really wanted to compile cheap COTS type stuff for cameras. I want to systematically narrow down the chipsets/manufacturers who are out of the box compatible or close to, just to make it so that older and hopefully cheaper webcams should lower the barrier to entry for this pretty accessible piece of hardware.
Case in point, though the raspberry pi is pretty versatile (and I have already bought an OV* camera module), they don't tend to be as straightforward as a usb plug-and-play solution. On top of that, even if I were to want to get cheap cameras, I'm nowhere near in need of the volume you'd be able to provide
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@Theodore-Borromeo Ok, that makes sense. If I find anything in the lower price range I'll give you a shout!
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Does this one work with the omega
see pick below
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@Rudy-Trujillo Unfortunately I haven't tried this particular camera you are looking at. From experience though, earlier Logitech webcams don't support MJPEG output, so it's likely that this camera won't work. What kind of application are you thinking of, and what is your budget? Perhaps I can recommend you a camera that's compatible with the Omega.
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@Rudy-Trujillo Just write an email to Logitech asking for specs, I had a problem in the past with a webcam and linux and they were very kind and replied.
It seems that the camera must be UPNP, be an UVC [1] device and support mjepg format for output.
@Boken-Lin are there other limitations?
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http://www.acmesystems.it/video_streaming claims the followingf webcams to be compatible:
Microsoft Lifecam HD-3000
Microsoft Lifecam HD-5000
Microsoft Lifecam Cinema 720p HD webcam
Microsoft LifeCam Studio 1080p HD
Logitech Webcam C250 1.3 megapixel webcam
Logitech QuickCam
Sphere AF. Motorised 2-megapixel HD sensor webcam with Carl Zeiss optics.
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@Theodore-Borromeo you can try the -y switch for that camera: https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/MJPG-Streamer/ even though, as @Boken-Lin wrote, it will use lots of CPU power.
