ICT4E wiki - ICTP_Workshop_2007/openEyAwiki/OpenEya

Please note that the present pages on the ICTP workshop were obtained from a mediawiki used during the workshop. There may be a number of links that go to missing pages, and other inconsistencies. Much of it is also very informal, and should be seen as workshop notes!

openEyA derives from early discussions during the 2007 ICTP-SDU Workshop on Rich Media Webcasting Technologies (i.e. the workshop described on the present pages). After the workshop Kees Huyser set up a wiki here http://www.huyser.net/openEyAwiki/index.php, and to include the pages in the workshop proceedings, we mirror them here. In December 2008, about a year after the work, OpenEya was officially released by ICTP-SDU, see http://www.openeya.org.

Main Page, OpenEya Code, Ffmpeg, AppleScript, Community Portal

1 different versions of the EyA workflow
2 possibly useful software for openEyA (substitutes for Mac software)
3 hardware

[edit] 1 different versions of the EyA workflow

AppleScript EyA Producer script v. 3.12e, (badly) translated into english by keeshu

[edit] 2 possibly useful software for openEyA (substitutes for Mac software)

[edit] 2.1 capture photos

gPhoto2 is a free, redistributable, ready to use set of digital camera software applications for Unix-like systems. Installed this from the Ubuntu distribution and it worked as advertised. The Canon A640 was automatically recognised. Here's code to capture multiple pictures:

gphoto2 --capture-image --interval 15 --frames 10 -P --filename=%y%m%d_%H-%M-%S.%C This saves 10 photos with a 15 sec interval. The -P gets photo from camera RAM; for the filename see date(1).

Canon Capture. Capture is a tool for periodic image capturing with digital Canon cameras. It is licensed under GPL and it was developed for Linux.

[edit] 2.2 capture video / audio

video capture

FFmpeg is a very fast video and audio converter which unfortunately is broken in Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy. Here's a solution. Code to record 30 seconds sound:

ffmpeg -f audio_device -i /dev/audio1 -vn -t 00:00:30 out.avi Theoretical code to record 30 seconds of video and sound: ffmpeg -f audio_device -i /dev/audio1 -f m4v -i /dev/video4linux2 -t 00:00:30 out.avi

Video For Linux wiki. V4L is built into the v2.1.x linux kernel; V4L2 is built into the v2.5.x linux kernel
Motion; everything but the kitchen sink...

audio capture

streamer (from the xawtv package) can write audio, but video is failing. Code for 30 seconds audio capture:

streamer -C /dev/dsp1 -t 0:30 -O sound.wav -F stereo

[edit] 2.3 synchronize video and photos

FlowPlayer is a free Flash player which supports timestamps
flvtool adds timestamps to a Flashmovie; works with FlowPlayer
scripts to produce an XML file used by flvtool
SWFObject 2.0, a free flash player
Wowzamedia Free Flash server (for upto 10 streams)

[edit] 3 hardware

[edit] 3.1 remote controlable digital cameras

list
Why more than 6 Mpixel cameras could be a waste of money (but it needs to be tested!)
Also read Ken Rockwell's article on the megapixel myth

[edit] 3.2 screengrabbers

Epiphan VGA2USB LR sits between "video out" and "camera in" and can grab the producer's screen at 30 fps

[edit] 3.3 about webcams

Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy has support for UVC built into the kernel; see here
The linux UVC people have list of cameras that should work with Ubunti 7.10 Gutsy.
V4L wiki page about linux usable webcams
QuickCam, a website by Logitech engineers who've developed linux drivers for Logitech cameras
Michel Xhaard's website which has linux drivers for hundreds of webcams

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