The Aurora Live (NICT) Cambridge University Engineering Department - Qi Pan. ProFORMA: Probabilistic Feature-based On-line Rapid Model Acquisition [Home] [2009 BMVC Paper (6.3MB)] [BibTeX] Off-line model reconstruction relies on an image collection phase and a slow reconstruction phase, requiring a long time to verify a model obtained from an image sequence is acceptable. We propose a new model acquisition system, called ProFORMA, which generates a 3D model on-line as the input sequence is being collected. As the user rotates the object in front of a stationary camera, a partial model is reconstructed and displayed to the user to assist view planning.
The model is also used by the system to robustly track the pose of the object. Models are rapidly produced through a Delaunay tetrahedralisation of points obtained from on-line structure from motion estimation, followed by a probabilistic tetrahedron carving step to obtain a textured surface mesh of the object. Figure 1: Left to right (a) Object rotated by hand in front of camera. Acknowledgements. Having fun with Phidgets!
(Click image to enlarge) I've just got a Lynxmotion - Pan and Tilt Kit from Phidgets (thanks to Microsoft!). The kit comes with two servos, a pan/tilt assembly, a Phidgets USB 4-Servo Controller, and lots of fun. :) The Phidgets controller connects to a USB port, and can control up to four servos simultaneously. Here's a video - I'm controlling the pan/tilt of my webcam with a mouse: I am really impressed by how easy it is to program and control the servos with the Phidgets controller. You don't need to have any knowledge of electronics or USB communication protocols for using it. If you're interested in buying one , you can find it here - Cheers! Touchless Multitouch in Processing.
Update (23.11.2008): i made a processing library out of the codeexample above - guru Today i read about touchless an opensource sdk microsoft has released. it enables you to track objects using a simple webcam to create apps similar to a multitouch display. then i spent about 20 minutes coding a processing sketch that does roughly the same :-) as you can see in the screenshot i cant affort the same cool toys the microsoft coder has in the demo video, so i had to use some post-its instead below is the complete sourcecode of the app. I didn't export it as an applet this time, because the applet couldn't use the quicktime api. When the programm starts hold up 2 different colored items (use colors that do not appear in the background) then click on the first color with the left mousebutton and on the second color using the right mousebutton. and then enjoy the "minority report"-experience zooming and rotating the image :-)
Powerful webcams and ip cameras server for windows. Splashup. 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. Using the Video4Linux driver, mencoder can take input from the webcam and save it in an uncompressed AVI file. Use the following command line to record an AVI with a resolution of 320x240 pixels. 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. Reduce you image to ASCII. MAKE: Blog: Webcam + cardboard = joystick.