which kind of camera to use

[andreiipascalin]

Hello,

I'm kind of new around these parts ... so bare with me please.
I want to continue a project I started some time ago using java to process video from a camera in order to tell the robot where to go , how to act.
this is my project in action: robot vision image processing in Java
for that i used a trust webcam, not the best choice at all, but i was experimenting with image processing. i am actually more of a programmer than an electronics man so i would like to do processing on my pc/laptop. also i think the amount of procesing needed would require some more hardware.

my question is: what kind of camera should i buy/search for... an ip camera would give me the wireless mobility but would restrict me regarding power supply ... right ? as they don't use batteries from what I know. on the other hand having the laptop sit on the robot and a camera connected to it would be an acceptable trade-off, except the image quality is kind of poor for a webcam.

I tested my program with a sony handycam and got better image and was happier with my results.
could someone inform me about a webcam with really good video quality, or a way to hook up an ip cam to a battery type power source.
or should I buy a handycam ?

I am really at a loss as what is better for me. i plan to build a robot but it will be controlled by a laptop mounted on it or something like that. for the moment I just want to improve as much as possible my video processing algorithms and get as closest to real time as possible. the fastest my program runs now is 100 ms reaction / processing time.

thanks for any advice in advance

[Weird Fishes]

I don't know how good quality you need/want, but I've had pretty good results with the PS3 eye camera. It was easy to set up on Mac OS X too, (I'd imagine it being just as easy on Windows).

I bought it due to its compatibility and price.

It's much better than my laptops webcam, for sure, but I can't really say if it'll be good enough without knowing your definition of good.

Hope that helps.

[andreiipascalin]

sorry for being vague. well, by a good i mean, a clear image, or as clear as I can get from my device. I would like a ccd camera, I don't really need/want a high resolution, i will probably use vga resolution. I don't really trust a cmos camera ... because all those that i had to use (webcams) were kind of poor in quality... i mean they would either give a redish tint or a blue tint to my image, depending on the lighting conditions. even if i set the color settings manually there was a tint... and I am trying to avoid sharpening my image or something else to get rid of the tints. I am sorry I don't have an image right now with how that robot "saw" but if i must i'll get one.

so my question remains ... is there a decent wireless ip camera with a battery or should I buy a camcorder ? what do you (anyone) use as a camera ?

thanks.