Subject: Re: Webcam API
To: Jeff McMahill <jmcm@FRC2.frc.ri.cmu.edu>
From: John Franklin <franklin@elfie.org>
List: tech-kern
Date: 11/14/2000 16:55:38
On Tue, Nov 14, 2000 at 04:46:46PM -0500, Jeff McMahill wrote:
> > I'm considering writing a driver for a USB webcam.
> 
> Good timing - I was just trying to get my USB CPiA camera to
> work last night with the ugen driver...
> (I can get images now, but not reliably.)
> Is there any particular reason to write a specific driver,
> as opposed to using ugen and maybe a userland libvideo
> or something to provide a common API?
> 
> > The question is what API it should present to useland software.
> > Is the bktr driver API the way to go?
> 
> No.  For one thing, many of the defined constants and structures
> have names that go back to when the driver was originally written for
> the Matrox Meteor (ie, METEORSETGEO, struct meteor_geomet, etc.)
> 
> You might want to look at the video4linux stuff, although whether
> you should consider that how to do it, or how not to do it, I
> don't know... :-)

I've been looking at the IBM "c-it" PC Camera (read: cheapo webcam)
driver in Linux on the hopes of getting a driver for it in the BSD
kernel.  I've been wondering what kind of a "ucam" standard to use
myself for an API.

jf
-- 
John Franklin
franklin@elfie.org
ICBM: 35°48'19"N 78°46'39"W