SourceForge.net: webcamstudio » home Videoconferencias web home Videoconferencias web streaming Tutorials - Webcams in Linux, Part 1 - Linux Likes Webcams, Sort Of Linux Likes Webcams, Sort Of February 21, 2008 By Carla Schroder Webcams are everywhere these days: they're standard on a lot of laptops, LCD monitors are starting to incorporate them, and decent standalone USB webcams can be had for less than $40. In this two-part series we'll set up a Webcam on Linux, and then use it to perform a number of amazing and fun tasks. You won't get television-quality video with an inexpensive Webcam; you'll get small fuzzy herky-jerky. It takes more than a good Webcam to get good performance. Linux support for Webcams is pretty good, thanks to a number of hardy Linux developers. The bad news is "pretty good" means you may still have to compile and manually install drivers, and perform other manual tweakages.
Yet Another Webcam Software The Webcam HOWTO Version 1.2, November 2002 Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document but changing it is not allowed. The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document "free" in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others. This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft cense designed for free software. A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J. K. L. M. N. O.
Five fun ways to use a Linux webcam By Razvan T. Coloja  Record yourself One of the simplest ways you can record webcam videos is with mencoder. mencoder -tv driver=v4l:width=320:height=240:device=/dev/video0 -nosound -ovc lavc -o wcrecording.avi Substitute /dev/video0 with the device node used by your USB webcam. If you'd rather use a GUI to do the recording, try Video4Linux Grab. Make a video stream If you have the Apache Web server installed on your machine, you can use the webcam to make a video stream and display it on a Web page. Webcam-server has some options you can use to change the display mode of the stream and offer your visitors some additional info. Monitor your house You'd be amazed how easy it is to turn an old Linux box and a cheap webcam into a powerful video surveillance system. ZoneMinder records in JPEG format and uses FFMpeg or mpeg_encode to merge and transform the image files into a single video file. Reduce you image to ASCII Morph yourself
Mark Schmidt's Abode : C# WebCam User Control Source Some people have asked if they could take a look at the source for the WebCam Vista Sidebar gadget. After a little bit of cleaning up, I'm posting it now for you to take a look at. Here are some things worth mentioning: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. When looking through the source (there isn't that much to it) pay attention to the 2 primary methods. The FindCaptureDevice method enumerates through your devices looking for the 1st video device it finds that provides an input (FilterCategory.InputDevice). 103 UCOMIEnumMoniker classEnum = null; 104 UCOMIMoniker[] moniker = new UCOMIMoniker[1]; 105 object source = null; 107 ICreateDevEnum devEnum = (ICreateDevEnum)(new CreateDevEnum()); 108 int hr = devEnum.CreateClassEnumerator(FilterCategory.VideoInputDevice, out classEnum, CDef.None); 109 DsError.ThrowExceptionForHR(hr); 110 Marshal.ReleaseComObject(devEnum); 117 int none = 0; 119 if (classEnum.Next(moniker.Length, moniker, out none) == 0) 121 Guid iid = typeof(IBaseFilter).GUID; 124 else 53 int hr = 0; 55 try
Configuring your webcam to work under Linux By Bruce Byfield The best scenario for configuring a webcam is when you buy an external one. Numerous sites exist for different manufacturers and models, and a Web search can often tell you whether GNU/Linux supports a given webcam. In most cases, you probably won't find much information on the manufacturer's site, but you will generally find community-built sites, often complete with user comments. Howard Shane's The Webcam HOTO, while showing its age in some ways, includes many useful links for consumers. For FireWire cameras, try The IEEE1394 Digital Camera List, which is maintained by Damien Douxchamps. An especially useful site is Michel Xhaard's A Free World, whose Spca5xx drivers are starting to find their way into the repositories of major distributions, including Debian. More often, you will have to obtain information about the camera directly from the computer. Test the camera using a suitable program (see below). Testing Conclusion