Author Topic: robotic camera control  (Read 3250 times)

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Offline dmehlingTopic starter

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robotic camera control
« on: July 08, 2007, 05:06:13 PM »
I am trying to design a robotic page turning machine and I would like the ability to take pictures of every page that is turned with a digital camera.  Is there any way to have either a microcontroller or a software program to automatically have the camera take a picture every five or 10 seconds?  I know there are software programs where you can remotely trigger the camera to take a picture, but it requires the input of the user.  I know there must be a way, because there are automatic book scanners that do that kind of thing.
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Offline suren

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Re: robotic camera control
« Reply #1 on: July 09, 2007, 07:59:50 AM »
Hi dude
I think this is a simple problem.I have used matlab to do a similiar thing.I am sure there must be many other software that can do this stuff.
Its implementation in any software would have to be done this way.
Make a while loop that continues running the number of times you want it to..
in the for loop include a take picture command
Pause for 5 or ten seconds whatever you want..
you can usually do it by taking computer clock as input(usually it gives precision upto milli seconds)

like this u will take a picture..wait for a time..then do the same thing again..
i hope this helps..
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Offline JonHylands

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Re: robotic camera control
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2007, 05:22:43 AM »
RoboRealm lets you take snapshots of the current camera view...

- Jon
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Offline Robotboy86

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Re: robotic camera control
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2007, 10:55:47 PM »
hey why not use something like a rotating metal rod with a lobe on one side and them you can control the speed by varying the rotational speed
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Offline Admin

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Re: robotic camera control
« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2007, 09:08:33 PM »
Three more ideas . . .

Hack open a digital camera and place a microcontroller activated MOSFET where the picture button is (really simple).

Or attach a servo to the camera so that it pushes the camera button every few seconds.

Or just use a webcam and use the included el-cheapo software that comes with it to automatically take a snapshot every 5 seconds. There are a few programs out there that you can download for free that do this, too. Ive tried a few, and some of them can even publish your snapshots directly to the web in real time.
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