XFqcam 1.02
January 25, 1996
by Paul Chinn (loomer@1000klub.com or loomer@svpal.org)

What's New

No more image distortions, nuke flares, load flashes, etc.
UberFPS(tm)- frame rates? you want framerates? Hows about 200fps? Ok, maybe I got that with a 40x30 image and brightness cranked to 0, but still, this version is fast. 50 fps for a 6bit 80x60 image is not too shabby.

Disclaimer

This program comes with no guarantees. You use it at your own risk and assume all responsibility for any damage that results from its use. ***WARNING*** this program drives the camera as fast as it can. Framerates of 50-200 FPS are achievable on my pentium. I do not know if this is bad for the camera. I doubt it since the protocol is handshake driven, but if you use this program, YOU ASSUME ALL LIABLITY for anything bad that happens.

Overview

XFqcam gives you a complete GUI interface to a QuickCam under Xwindows in Linux. You can manipulate all camera settings in real time and take snapshots.

Installing

A precompiled executable ``xfqcam'' is included. It must be SUID root to run since it needs to access the camera io ports. Or, you can build your own copy as follows:
You will need the XForms library. This is a nice GUI kit available from the XForms home page at http://bragg.phys.uwm.edu/xforms.

Run ``make depend'' and ``make''.

Running

Interaction with the camera is straightforward; there are buttons and sliders to control the various functions. The ``Take Picture'' button will take a snapshot and let you save it as a PGM file. Some notes:
1. xfqcam -h

will show you command line options

2. starting with this version (1.02) xfqcam will automatically find the first attached camera. This probe is read-only which means that it doesn't send goofy stuff to printers...but it also means it sometimes does not find the camera. This is especially true if the camera has been left in a weird state by a previous program. If this happens you can use the -p option to explicitly specify the port to use.

3. also, the program now detects if you have a bi-directional port or not. You can override this with th -o option if for some reason it isn't working right. If you don't have a bi-dir port the program will hang if you try to turn on the bi-directional button.

Bugs & Issues

Since I don't know how to decode a 4bpp bi-directional image, this mode is currently non functional. Switching to 4bpp will disable bidirectional button.

Future Enhancements

4bit bi directional mode
24 bit X mode- anyone with a 24bit server want to help me with this?
let user rubber-band a rectangle on image to specify exact dimensions
Time lapse/video recording, etc. a la QuickMovie in Windows. Anyone have any input on a good approach for video recording?
image filters: frame averaging, noise removeable, etc.
clean up code more- it definately shows its Frankenstein history of hacking and patching from several sources...

Program Info

Please send any questions, suggestions, comments to Paul Chinn <loomer@1000klub.com>.
The latest version and other info can be found on www.1000klub.com/~loomer The quickcam protocol code is a mutant combination of Thomas Davis' and Scott Laird's code with a few enhancements and additions of my own.

Check out Russ Nelson's www.crynwr.com/qcpc for further info on the Linux QuickCam project.