Tech Friday: Programming the Logitech Orbit Webcam

Just dabbling.

The Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF Webcam is a motorized point/tilt/zoom (PTZ) web camera with outstanding resolution and performance. Logitech has provided some additional documentation on manipulating the webcam. In Windows this is done through the DirectView API. To get as far as "Hello World", i.e just to demo the whole thing, I first downloaded a sample C++ program provided by Logitech called. PTZ.exe Then I realized that I better see if the camera works in the first place, so I downloaded the current QuickCam driver set qc1150 from the Logitech site. Once that was installed, it worked fine when testing.

Then I tested PTZ.exe. This seemed to work fine. It is a command line program which does the following:
* Scans existing USB ports to find the webcam.
* Issues a series of commands to exercise the mechanical and digital PTZ functions of the camera.

Because my camera is an older version, just the zoom seemed to work. I'll have to test it again with current AF.

Since PTZ.exe also comes as C++ source code, I downloaded and installed Visual Studio C++ Express Edition. This is the free version of Visual C++ . I opened the PTZ "solution", when showed the various header files, and the main routine in a "folder" hierarchy to the left of a standard editing pane.


[Click picture to see full size]

Just like old times. You compile. You link. You run the application in a command box. This all works pretty reliably, even in Vista, running on my Mac through Parallels.

I then downloaded a USB port sniffer, and watched the messages merrily going to and fro between the web cam and the USB port. Much more on USB in Jan Axelson's books and on her web site.

Next steps: Get the proper webcam, and try modifying the PTZ program myself to see if I can change the parameters. Oh, and maybe get a proper Windows development system.

By the way, the Logitech support forum has support for Linux and Solaris.

Drucker on Getting Things Done

This is my favorite Mind Map. I think I may have first seen it on David Pollard's site.

Death to Microsoft LifeCam

... and Logitech Orbit MPs as well.

One reason I convinced myself that it would be good to move to the Mac is that I've been really tired of trying to solve Windows problems. I figured that there would still be problems, but at least they would be new problems. I was coming off a Vista disaster, where we attempted to install Vista on ten production machines, (because the University's license with Microsoft specified that they can't use XP) and Vista never worked. Hey what's a hundred or more hours down the tubes for the sake of Microsoft?

Like childbirth, one forgets the pain with time, and I have merrily installed application after application on the Macbook and the iMac. This almost inevitably is a two-step process which takes at most two minutes:
1. Download file
2. Drag file to the Applications folder.

On the other hand, installations for Windows usually involve an opaque installer program which may or may not have an option to install things that you don't want. Then there is the Windows registry... a nightmare. To make a long story short:

I had a Logitech Orbit AF camera installed on one box, and I removed it to substitute an older Orbit MP. The MP didn't work, even after attempting to reinstall the drivers three times. I don't know if if it is a USB issue...or what. So, I had a Microsoft LifeCam VX6000 lying around, and I figured I could use that. Hey its from Microsoft, right? This installer got into some kind of infinite loop, pegging the processor to 100% and basically hanging. Twice. Finally after five reboots, and a lengthy process where I just ignored the machine for awhile (fifteen minutes or more), it finally did install, and the camera does in fact work with my application. Elapsed time almost an hour.

A similar thing has happened multiple times with Hewlett Packard ink jet printers, and even my LaserJet 2420. The hardware is crap. How is it that a $500 LaserJet 2420 overheats after 30 minutes and stops printing when my Laser 2000 is still going after something like ten years? (I gave it to a non-profit.) HP has hundreds of printer models, each requiring separate support and drivers, many of which don't work well. (Even the Indian tech support people have said that HP driver installer programs are useless).

Both HP and Microsoft have lost control, desperate to foist any half-assed product on to the market in an attempt to maintain their market share. And each of these sorry products can represent tens of hours of lost time and frustration. Grrrr!

Odds and Sods

Going Aerial

Smashing Magazine has a collection of images taken from above and links to additional collections and tips for aerial photography.

There are a couple of tutorials over at Make Magazine's web site for kite aerial photography, and photography on a pole. Both units use a similar yoke-mounted camera assembly that is controlled by servos. In fact, if you made the yoke once, you could probably use it for both applications.

Old Dogs/New Tricks Department

Jeff Duntemann gets Ubuntu. His Contrapositive Diary has now been moved over to a WordPress platform. I miss the old single page with the spiral-bound notebook illustration.

I've been working with MindManager for the Mac. This is available in version 8 for Windows, and version 7 for the Mac. Version 7 works fine; while not elaborate, it is quick to learn, and strikes me as an excellent example of "less is more". More ideas for mind mapping are on Chuck Frey's blog and he has a useful e-Book with lots of ideas. One suggestion from the book; when showing a mind map diagram to someone, don't call it a "mind map". My most elaborate map to date was the proposal outline of our NIH grant application discussed a couple posts ago.

Question of the Day: "Why is there no Visio for the Mac?" Or maybe a better way of asking the question, "What is the equivalent of Visio on the Mac?

Non-Technical Question of the Day: Watching the follies surrounding the confirmation of Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary, I have to ask, what is a guy who underpaid $34,000 in income tax using Turbo-Tax and doing his own taxes in the first place? Oh, and why did this happen to get resolved shortly before his nomination to the post of treasury secretary, even though the years when he didn't pay were back in the first part of the decade? $34,000 is still a respectable salary in my neck of the woods... how much was the guy making in gross salary to be able to owe that much and then not pay it?