webcam under suse linux

Hello,

we need some help before buying a webcam that runs under suse linux.

We would like to take weather pictures with a normal, small office/pc/notebook webcam. We are lucky that our linux server stands right by a window.

We found out that there are several webcams (Logitech, Creative, Philips,…) which work under linux, some of them needing extra drivers. However, we don’t want the webcam to just work, we have some “special” requirements to the software. It should be able to take a picture with the webcam every minute and save it (eg. yyyymmddhhmm…) so that we can use all the pictures later.

Also, the webcam should have a decent resolution/number of megapixels, at least 4 to 8 megapixels, if possible. And, as I mentioned above, it should be a small, normal pc cam, no industrial outdoor webcam.

Good information is highly appreciated. Thx!

On 2008-08-04, new webcam <new_webcam@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

> We found out that there are several webcams (Logitech, Creative,
> Philips,…) which work under linux, some of them needing extra
> drivers. However, we don’t want the webcam to just work, we have some
> “special” requirements to the software. It should be able to take a
> picture with the webcam every minute and save it (eg. yyyymmddhhmm…)
> so that we can use all the pictures later.

You’re confusing driver and other applications.
From you needs, I’d say you need a driver that ‘just works’, if only for
reliability and ease of installation.

Then, you need an application that can take an image every minute, and give
it a certain name. I imagine there must be several, look around.

I had a similar need, a few years back. I had found an app that would save
the pic to a ‘image.jpg’ file. So all it took was a little script to run
the app and rename the file as needed. Then, a cron job to run the script
every minute (within certain hours)… done !

Just get your choosen webcam to run, then find a simple (why not
command-line) tool o get 1 picture.
The rest is easy, I could even try to dig out the script I once wrote.

> Also, the webcam should have a decent resolution/number of megapixels,
> at least 4 to 8 megapixels, if possible. And, as I mentioned above, it
> should be a small, normal pc cam, no industrial outdoor webcam.

That, I feared, would take you out of the ‘small, normal pc cam’ range.

But I see logitech has an 8 Mpixel for 99EUR. So, I guess the main concern
will be the driver.

PS: also look into the possible use of a digital camera as a cam. If you
have one handy, you could put that to the same use.


The sand remembers once there was beach and sunshine
but chip is warm too
– haiku from Effector Online, Volume 1, Number 6

  • new webcam,

IMHO the UVC driver is very good. Check for a list of compatible devices here:
http://linux-uvc.berlios.de/

HTH
Uwe

In typical oldcpu fashion, my web cam is VERY old, and I have not researched nor purchased one for years. But is not 4 to 8 Megapixels resolution a VERY demanding requirement? I think this would severely restrict the selection of available webcams.