Slashdot Mirror
A Reconfigurable High-Res Network Camera
An anonymous reader writes "This technical article describes the architecture and design philosophy behind the Elphel Model 313, an intelligent 1.3 megapixel network camera that delivers full-sized images at up to 15 frames per second. The design of the Model 313, which has an embedded Linux computer based on an Axis ETRAX 100LX RISC processor, makes use of a reconfigurable Xilinx FPGA for much of the camera's internal control logic. Because both the embedded software and FPGA hardware algorithms are released as open source technologies, developers can readily customize the Model 313's operation to meet specialized requirements."
Agreed. We had a couple Axis cameras temporarily "donated" by customers that were incredible products (easy to setup, linux based). Had them pointing at a couple foosball tables. I would definitely get one if the price point wasn't so prohibitive.
The cheapest ones I can find are around $200 right now... Looks like maybe only another year or so of waiting before they become cheap enough for "fun project" cameras.
here's a $200 after rebate camera, and the cool 802.11b ones start at around $300-$400. Yow!
If you had nuts on your chin, would they be chin nuts?
fuji normally does NOT do firmware updates that are avilable to the public
150 meters
A lot of research has been (and still is) devoted to this. A lot of work still has to be done before this can become a practical and commercial reality. A couple of companies even tried to commercialize such technology over the last couple of years, and most went belly-up (I did my Master's in cooperation with such a company).
One of the major issues with current FPGAs is the ability to reconfigure only part of the device without affecting the rest. Also, configuring larger devices takes a *long* time. I work with big Xilinx Virtex-II devices, and with a board with 9-10 on them, it can take a long time before they all get configured, even with the fastest configuration interface.
You can check it out here"
That's 150 meters, not 150 feet.
It depends what you want to do with them. Granted for home use they are overly expensive, but at work we are using ~30 network cameras (not this one) for our CCTV, which runs in its own VLAN on our network. Works a treat.
The frame rate of the Kodak KAC-1310 sensor used in the camera runs at pixel clock up to 20MHz,and the frame rate is calculated by the following formula:
fps=1/(((H-1)*(W+44)+2672)*0.00000005)
W : H : fps
1280 : 1024 : 14.73704687
640 : 480 : 60.54954769
320 : 240 : 223.0450105
160 : 120 : 742.1701054
Hardware compression provides standard (quality,frame size) -> filesize ratios, for 1280x1024 50% quility gives 50-100k, so 15fps can be easily sent over the LAN. For smaller sizes/higher frame rates data rate over the LAN stays about the same, you just need to format image in multiple of 16x16 pixels.
Andrey
Right now, for my own home, which isn't too big, I think something like the MSI transcieving module would be more like it. But I'd rather get something good from Axis which has excellent Linux support, than from MSI who doesn't support Linux explicitly at all.
I've dumped their sales department an e-mail about this now and then, but never got a response.
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
Hm.
I just completed several weekends-worth of crawling around in my attic dragging coax and 12 v power out to points around the perimeter of the house for a secondary security system.
Rather than doing the network camera thing, I'm bringing all of the cable to a PC running "motion" (http://motion.technolust.cx). This is video, so it's a lot lower resolution than 1.3 mp (~3.8 kilopixels).
Still, I can get about 15-20 fps on 4 streams easily enough.
It's enough for decent security monitoring. The cables are basically inaccessible, the thing's all on a UPS, and it'd take an expert to find the box where the stuff's getting recorded.
If I'd been a better shopper, the system would have priced out much lower. But with buying weatherproof color bullet-cams a couple of years ago, this is not price competitive with the network cams.
Interesting how quickly this kind of thing changes!
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
How about the eCamIt its about $169 ?
I've been playing with one today, you have to use the windows only software to grab images from it, but the hardware seems nice.
Personally i'd rather have a camera with a web server built in but those are somewhat more expensive