USB linux webcam recommendations

Replies:

Parents:

  • None.

So I'm moved into my new digs and my workspace is nicely away from the
activity of the rest of the house, but there's a cost to that as
well.  

We've got this large German Shepard who spends most of these warm
summer days in the garage for a number of reasons including all the
dog hair he's shedding and to let himself out when nature calls.
We're set back a bit from the road so normally it's ok that he has
free rein.  The problem is when someone or something comes up the
driveway he starts barking and I need to investigate and see if
intervention is necessary.  I don't think he'd maul anyone (another
dog if it didn't respect his authority, sure) but they don't know that
and I might not get my UPS package or that fat Publisher's Clearing
House check from Ed McMann.

I have a decent route to run cable between where my desktop is and a
window looking out the front where it occurred to me a webcam would
provide me the view I need without the need of having to stand up.
Only trick would be capturing what I should have seen while it was in
the field of vision of the camera.  There are a couple efforts under
linux to sense motion from image differences, [1] (debian packaged as
well) looks the most promising and it's commandline based with a web
cgi interface instead of strictly gui.  Plus motion generates events
when it detects movement so I could do one of a number of things
including pop a tab in my browser of the image when there's something
coming, maybe before even the dog catches on.  

I've never bothered at all with webcams and figured someone on this
list may have done some product comparisons under linux or know of
sites that have - I haven't turned up much in my search.  I figured
USB (I only have USB 1.0 at present) for the IO throughput and not a
custom pci card so I could attach it to the lapper if I ever want to
video conference or something.  Since I'll probably have to shell out
~80-120 USD for the 2 USB cables (5m max USB cable length [2]) and hub
(to get beyond 5m [3]) I don't want to spend much on a higher end
webcam.  I think at least 640x480 resolution would be good for some
clarity of details.  

Anyone have any recommendations on webcams?  Partial list [4] of linux
supported in the "drivers" section.  I'm leaning towards Logitech's
middle of the line QuickCam Web [5] [6] since the only difference I
noticed in the features lists was additional [MS Windows only]
software and more stylish packaging for their "Pro" version neither of
which I care about.  

1. http://motion.technolust.cx/
2. http://www.usb.org/faq/ans5.html#q2
3. http://www.usb.org/faq/ans5.html#q4
4. http://www.exploits.org/v4l/
5. http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=products/details&contentid=5036&crid=4&detail=2&countryid=19&languageid=1
6. http://qce-ga.sourceforge.net/

--
Ted Guild <[email protected]>
http://www.guilds.net

Re: USB linux webcam recommendations

Replies:

Parents:

Hi Ted,

I'm interested in this as well (e.eg., for use with vic [1];
other suggested conferencing software for Linux?).

My only previous experience with a Web cam and Linux involved
a Sony product I bought in Japan that never worked for me.
I gave it to Martin Duerst to use (with a Japanese version of
Windows).

I've not tried to use my USB port(s) ever, I think...

 - Ian


[1] http://www-nrg.ee.lbl.gov/vic/

Ted Guild wrote:
> So I'm moved into my new digs and my workspace is nicely away from the
> activity of the rest of the house, but there's a cost to that as
> well.  
>
> We've got this large German Shepard who spends most of these warm
> summer days in the garage for a number of reasons including all the
> dog hair he's shedding and to let himself out when nature calls.
> We're set back a bit from the road so normally it's ok that he has
> free rein.  The problem is when someone or something comes up the
> driveway he starts barking and I need to investigate and see if
> intervention is necessary.  I don't think he'd maul anyone (another
> dog if it didn't respect his authority, sure) but they don't know that
> and I might not get my UPS package or that fat Publisher's Clearing
> House check from Ed McMann.
>
> I have a decent route to run cable between where my desktop is and a
> window looking out the front where it occurred to me a webcam would
> provide me the view I need without the need of having to stand up.
> Only trick would be capturing what I should have seen while it was in
> the field of vision of the camera.  There are a couple efforts under
> linux to sense motion from image differences, [1] (debian packaged as
> well) looks the most promising and it's commandline based with a web
> cgi interface instead of strictly gui.  Plus motion generates events
> when it detects movement so I could do one of a number of things
> including pop a tab in my browser of the image when there's something
> coming, maybe before even the dog catches on.  
>
> I've never bothered at all with webcams and figured someone on this
> list may have done some product comparisons under linux or know of
> sites that have - I haven't turned up much in my search.  I figured
> USB (I only have USB 1.0 at present) for the IO throughput and not a
> custom pci card so I could attach it to the lapper if I ever want to
> video conference or something.  Since I'll probably have to shell out
> ~80-120 USD for the 2 USB cables (5m max USB cable length [2]) and hub
> (to get beyond 5m [3]) I don't want to spend much on a higher end
> webcam.  I think at least 640x480 resolution would be good for some
> clarity of details.  
>
> Anyone have any recommendations on webcams?  Partial list [4] of linux
> supported in the "drivers" section.  I'm leaning towards Logitech's
> middle of the line QuickCam Web [5] [6] since the only difference I
> noticed in the features lists was additional [MS Windows only]
> software and more stylish packaging for their "Pro" version neither of
> which I care about.  
>
> 1. http://motion.technolust.cx/
> 2. http://www.usb.org/faq/ans5.html#q2
> 3. http://www.usb.org/faq/ans5.html#q4
> 4. http://www.exploits.org/v4l/
> 5. http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=products/details&contentid=5036&crid=4&detail=2&countryid=19&languageid=1
> 6. http://qce-ga.sourceforge.net/
>


--
Ian Jacobs ([email protected])   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs
Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447

Re: USB linux webcam recommendations

Replies:

  • None.

Parents:

"Ian B. Jacobs" <[email protected]> writes:

> Hi Ted,
>
> I'm interested in this as well (e.eg., for use with vic [1];
> other suggested conferencing software for Linux?).

My understanding is gnome meeting [2] is the better one under linux.

> My only previous experience with a Web cam and Linux involved
> a Sony product I bought in Japan that never worked for me.
> I gave it to Martin Duerst to use (with a Japanese version of
> Windows).
>
> I've not tried to use my USB port(s) ever, I think...

That's usually not too involved, details at [3].

I'm leaning more towards the logitech quickcam pro (the other quickcam
web driver may only be able to get 320x240?) and also seeing
some favorable postings on Phillips USB webcams (same driver for both
[4]) - for the more generic, reasonably priced (100USD or less) cams.
You can also get into some ~400USD and up cameras that pan/zoom and/or
are 802.11b wireless.  

>   - Ian
>
>
> [1] http://www-nrg.ee.lbl.gov/vic/

2. http://www.gnomemeeting.org/
3. http://www.linux-usb.org
4. http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/

--
Ted Guild <[email protected]>
http://www.guilds.net

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