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A/V Data Collection Using Linux?

Posted by Cliff on from the collecting-random-data dept.

Simon D. Levy asks: "I am consulting in a biology lab that collects data on fruit-fly mating behavior, and we would like to migrate our data collection to a Linux box. Our primary concern is being able to digitize incoming audio signals (at 8kHz sampling rate), but we would also ideally like to be able to monitor the flies' behavior using a digital camera connected directly to the computer. Crucially, we need to be able to isolate the audio component of the signal, as well as having access to an API (C/C++ would be nice) that allowed us to start and stop the recording. Any experience that anyone has had with this sort of problem would be much appreciated. We haven't bought anything yet, and are looking to build this system (CPU, video camera, A/D cards) from the bottom up. Thanks!"

2 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. Video4Linux, OSS/ALSA by ikekrull · · Score: 5, Informative

    This stuff is pretty trivial under linux with even the most budget hardware.

    Take a bt848 card and a camera and you have good quality video in, easily accessible via Video4Linux with a large base of existing video manipulation tools that let you pipe the video data around, manipulate it in realtime, compress/decompress in realtime etc. etc.

    OSS/ALSA make it easy to record sound, and again there is a huge range of open source projects that should be either directly applicable or easily modifiable for your purposes.

    There is some specialised hardware for hardware compression, though depending on your needs an Iomega Buz or similar can be had for very few dollars and provides hardware MJPEG compression, and is well supported under Linux.

    Its not hard to do this stuff under Windows either, but for the sort of project you have, Linux is ideal. You should be able to get something up and working in a couple of days.

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    I gots ta ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
  2. Totally doable in linux. by Mysticalfruit · · Score: 3, Informative

    Instead of using a usb based webcam, I'd go with a video capture card personally.

    Under every OS, webcams suck...period. If this is something where your going to take the MPEG stream and make a VCD archive out of it, your going to want something that creates a quality MPEG stream.

    For apps for video check out http://www.exploits.org/v4l/

    As for the sound, "try dspspy".

    Hope that helps!

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    Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.