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Firmware Hack Allows Video Analysis On a Canon Camera
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers from the University of Liege in Belgium have been able to perform real-time video analysis on a regular Canon digicam (video link) without any hardware modification. The results are shown directly on the digicam's screen. They use a hacked version of a popular open-source alternative firmware for Canon cameras: CHDK. This is a proof-of-concept that computer vision algorithms can now be embedded on regular Canon digicams with little effort (CHDK is coded in C). What other popular vision algorithms could be implemented? For what purpose?" You can get some idea about ViBe from this abstract at IEEE; basically, it allows background extraction in moving images.
I've been playing around with Zoneminder a bit & this could be a way to use decentralized cheap cameras to send events to a ZM server. Pretty neat.
I use CHDK on my own Canon PowerShot. Good stuff.
Subject pretty much says it all.
Unfortunately, it seems many camera manufacturers - including Canon when it comes to their SLR line - are far happier to put any new functionality in newly released camera models and put them on the bullet list for those, rather than making it available for older models as well and just letting the new model's technical (rather than software) advantages make their sales.
Abstraction overload.
I'm sure "video analysis" means something more concrete to those in the know (or not), but I can't shake off the feeling that it's all blahblahblah with no meaning other than to generate more blahblahblah.
Guess it worked, too. Blah blah.
Blah.
Blah blha?
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
What I find interesting about this is not so much that the code can be loaded(since the CHDK project already did that job, and has had it working for some time now); but that consumer digicams would have enough general purpose punch to run anything much more than trivial scripts that more or less emulate series of button presses(which can be extremely useful, for time lapse, auto bracketing, etc, etc.).
.jpeg form, or encoding video) would be done with largely fixed function hardware, with just a little bit of general purpose computer slapped on to handle UI, user input, and tweak the settings of the encoder units. Apparently, the general purpose units have more punch than I thought.
Given the sheer number that are produced, and the fairly tight battery life constraints, I would have assumed that most of the heavy lifting(crunching raw sensor data to
I wholeheartedly agree! Oh I miss the days when I used a modulator-demodulator to aid in my reception of electronic mail...
I call it a Cami-DigiCam Camcorder. It's so important to get the terminology right when you don't know anything else.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
OpenCV has C interfaces and there are more that have some C code libraries. Really the coding challenge would be building the wrappers to utilize those libraries with your camera's hardware (I assume provided through CHDK APIs). My vote is for a nifty KLT implementation that allows me to take a video and extract a huge wide pan image in post processing on the camera.
My work here is dung.
If we did not have you policing it for us, our language would have devolved into mutually incomprehensible babbling eons ago. Thank you for your continued vigilance.
However, I am confused by your use of the phrase 'the fuck,' and sentence fragments. Could you diagram your sentences for me? As you are the Lord of Language, I'm sure they are all grammatically correct, I just need a little help in seeing how...
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Most photographers refer to a non-SLR digital camera as a "digicam" and a dSLR as a "digital camera", as a means of differentiating the two in conversation.
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I'll get right on that as soon as you define "juicy" in a machine-readable format.
The page you linked to claims that CHDK is not available for the S90. How about the PowerShot SD880?
A neural network to emulate a CCTV security guard operator.
Because you know that's what they look at all day, instead of catching terrorists or whatever it is they're supposed to do.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Meh, the video demonstrates simple motion detection, which is no surprise considering that these cameras do face and smile detection all the time.
I was hoping for more, something along the lines of object recognition, artificial horizon, being able to see a road...
It's worth pointing out that CHDK isn't a hacked firmware (that would probably not be legally redistributable), nor is it an alternative firmware (that would be too much work). CHDK is an add-on to the existing firmware, that works by piggibacking on its OS, hooking functions, and spawning off extra processes on the camera's RTOS. This is what makes it so great: you get the original funcionality of the camera plus extra stuff, and you don't have to wait for the developers to add what already came with your camera anyway.
Ah, I see! You were writing in the Mix-a-lotian dialect, and positing that your anaconda don't want none unless she's got buns, hon. Sorry for my confusion, it must be the anal leakage.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
If you need an algorithm to identify which girls are attractive, then you don't need an attractive girl.
That page says:
Right, the new word for "digital camera" is "camera." If you mention to a friend that your camera battery is dead, would they still ask whether you can advance the film manually? No. The vast majority of cameras made, sold, and used today are digital cameras, so that is what the word has come to mean.
As others have pointed out, CHDK isn't supported on the S90 (yet, but it's being worked on). It also doesn't support 720p; video resolutions are only up to 640x480 @ 30fps. (But it's a great camera otherwise, and is widely praised as having good image quality and manual control, while being compact enough to carry around very easily.)
I think we would need a control group, lacking in back-end development, in order to correctly highlight the visual differences. It is my understanding that someone like Jane Fonda, who lacks a motor in the back of her Honda, would be perfect in this regard.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I must have missed that memo from the English Academy. What day did that happen?
Yes, I'll agree if someone says 'camera' in a non-film/celluloid specific context I'll probably assume it's referring to a digital camera, but in what way are we damaging the language (moreso) by using digicam?
l8r
Because they are SLRs. Their firmware can do almost all CHDK can do. A lot of work and little gain, plus risk of bricking an expensive camera. The main focus of CHDK is cheapest idiotekameras, because the difference it makes is really huge.
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Isn't this when somebody is supposed to chime in with a meme?
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
In precisely the way you damage the language when you elide the space between the words "more so". You're creating a word where none is needed.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Tell that to the Lomography crowd.
You can check our dedicated webpage.
It features downloadable binaries for windows and linux (thanks to wine).
Isn't this when somebody is supposed to chime in with a meme?
In Korea only old people use film? ...
In Soviet Russia film uses you?
Or maybe just imagine a Beowulf cluster of hacked Canon cameras
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
I was once chased by ninjas but managed to elide the guy on point and the rest fell apart.
I drank what? -- Socrates
... or the large format aficionados.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
waITWAITWAitwait. is canon really bringing back real s series ? /me frantically searches da web.
ok, that looks pretty close, except the hard lens cover seems to be missing, which was pretty cool. from the few images i've seen, it also seems to have pop-out flash (not as robust), and i don't see where tripod mount is located (older models had it at the centre of the lens, thus making it easier to get some panorama material w/o panoramic head).
ok, a short explanation on why i was so excited initially... i've been an owner of some s series powershots since s45 (ok, i have that one still, it just died :/ ), and i have suggested lots of these to friends and businesses. when my last powershot s died, i wanted to purchase a new one. unfortunately, the latest models that were still available had serious problems (i believe lack of raw and misplaced tripod mount ? don't recall for sure). :)
i put off the purchase of a new camera of that lass for a looong time. hear me canon ? i mostly loved what you produced at the time of s45. DAMN YOU for abandoning that line
there were some rumours that it was done to make g series more attractive etc.
so the news that s series might have been resurrected really made me look for my wallet, but it looks like they haven't actually returned to the s series roots. still, this is promising, and i'll keep an eye out for this, hoping to give some money to canon for getting me the spiced up s45 :)
oh, but i'm not getting a new camera that is not supported by chdk anymore. or one that does not have an open firmware with chdk capabilities (or chdk as the firmware itself =) )
Rich
I just checked the tripod mount on my S90, and it looks like it's smack bang in the centre of the lens.
As for the pop-out flash, it's motorised. I don't know if that makes it more os less robust, but there you go.
I've read that the S90 is basically the same as the G11 but with a different body and lens, which gives me hope that CHDK will be available for the S90 soon, since it already is for the G11. It does shoot RAW out of the box, though. You won't need CHDK for that.
Jane Fonda surely more than made up for that.
zosxavius photography
No, most photographers that refer to a non-SLR digital camera refer to it as a PnS (Point and Shoot) and dSLR as just "SLR" as in most digital forums it's automatically assumed you're running a digital camera opposed to film.
I still take superior pictures with my Minolta X-700, no Photoshop needed afterwards.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Yes, but Keira Knightley doesn't rhyme with any brand of vehicle I can think of.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
I don't mind if somebody says digicam, I just think it sounds a little old-fashioned, like "surfing the web."
There is no "bricking" risk because CHDK does not alter the firmware, it gets booted from the memory card. Put another memory card without the CHDK file and its gone.
Artix
Your Linux, your init.
What the hell are you guys talking about?
A 'camera' is a room.
Are you yacking about those newfangled "camera obscuras?"
That's correct when all you're doing is -using- CHDK.
Developers need to use some quite advanced tricks to get the firmware dump and hook it all up. Of course there's no risk if they make no mistakes, but who writes software 100% bug-free at first attempt?
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Yeah, there are some excellent cameras out there that aren't dSLRs for some uses. I have a Minolta Z3 that I bought my parents many years ago that I love. I used to carry a small camera myself, but I use my iPhone for random one-off stuff now.
I'm much less serious about photography than I used to be. I like hobbies with a positive cash flow, and while photography did that for me, it was a lot of time invested, a lot of cash on hand, but very little profit over time by the time I bought the equipment I needed to do it right.
These days I do vinyl signs and decals mostly, along with clean up the occasional virus.
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Most photographers I know refer to SLR's as cameras and non SLR cameras as "point and shoots" or if they are snobby "cute toys"
But then I hang around professionals and photojournalists, so they may not be hip on newbie terminology.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Ouch.
I admit I've been out of the loop a few years, but that hurt. I got my primary income from photography for almost 5 years.
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