RoboRealm Forum

Similar issues

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:11:00 EST

all, Yes I have had similar problems with wireless camera color rendition. I have bought and sent back two different ones already; the last was similar to the sparkfun one noted earlier. I did not change any lenses and even tried blocking the IR leds. Nothing seemed to help. I have one that was purchased at Staples that is the best so far but nothing close to a web cam directly (USB) connected to the computer.

I experienced it as a real problem when experimenting with RR's tutorials that use some kind of color tracking or recognition. The wireless cameras just didn't seem to produce sufficient color and there were always tracking issues (can't find the color). Whereas, with the directly connected usb web cam and using the same programs, the tutorials generally worked very well.

I think the next step is to design a bot that carries the laptop around with it and thus has a usb directly connected camera.

No Title

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:11:00 EST

Well, after all that, it turns out the problem was simply the wide angle lens I was using on the Sparkfun camera. When I put in the original lens, the colors came back...Sorry for the waste of bandwidth! But too bad for me, 'cause I really wanted to use that wide angle lens. At least it can be used for motion and shape detection.

--patrick

No Title

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:11:00 EST

Hello,

I have a 1.2 GHz wireless camera from Sparkfun that can be seen at:

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=616

The camera seems to work well in terms of frame rate and signal quality; however, the colors are terrible as the images below demonstrate.  I'm posting this message to ask if others have seen similar washed out colors with these types of cameras or is it likely that there is something wrong with the one I have.  More to the point, if you get good colors with your wireless camera, please post the model.

I am posting 6 images.  The first three are from a Creative Labs Live! Voice USB webcam connected directly to my computer.  I have all the auto settings turned off and the exposure turned all the way down--that's why the first "Raw" image is so faint.  However, I find that the RoboRealm color balancing filters give me good compensation while allowing me to obtain higher frame rates than are possible with the Creative auto settings turned on.

The second set of three images are from the Sparkfun wireless camera.  Note that these images were actually taken using a direct connection via an ADS Video Xpress USB capture device, so it's more of a direct comparison to the Creative camera.

In each set of three images, the first image is the "raw" image without any filters applied.  The second image is filtered through Robo Realm's Color Balance filter (Automatic) with intensity adjustment turned on.  The third image is taken using RR's Equalize Histogram filter instead of the Color Balance filter.

Notice how the filtered Creative Labs images show nice color contrasts between the two balls, whereas the Sparkfun wireless camera images remain washed out.

The lighting for these pictures is a 100W overhead incandescent along with a few other incandescent lights on in surrounding rooms.

Here now are the pictures:

Creative Labs Live! Voice USB Webcam

1. Raw Image

2. Color Balance filter

3. Equalize Histogram filter

Sparkfun Wireless 1.2 GHz Camera through USB Capture

1. Raw Image

2. Color Balance filter

3. Equalize Histogram filter

Any comments would be appreciated!

--patrick

No Title

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:11:00 EST

James,

there are many options here. Use the search to find other posts in this forum that have covered this topic. In the meantime you can also have a look at

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=USB-240C-VID&cpc=SCH

which is decent and reasonably priced. Note that it has both the camera transmission and NTSC to USB digitizer that you'd need to purchase in addition to any other NTSC type camera.

STeven.

Any recommendations for wireless webcams?

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:11:00 EST

Hi,

Firstly, apologies for the newbie question, I'm very new to RoboRealm and have never used a wireless web cam.

I'm looking to use RoboRealm to control a Lego Mindstorms NXT car, with an IP camera being used for vision.

Can anyone recommend a good wireless web cam to use that will work with RoboRealm?

Thanks,

James