Hello all,

I'm working on a robot that drives a USB camera around on a physical gantry.  My system is OSX 10.7.5, and I'm running Processing 2.0b8.  I've got everything working except for the video image, which is supposed to show up as a live feed in the Processing window when the sketch is run.  When I plug the camera in, Photobooth recognizes it automatically at full resolution and full frame rate.  However, when I try the  boilerplate Capture() code on the Processing site, I get a very long list of possible cameras.  These include many versions of the same device, and often cause the process to stall and error out:

Exception in thread "Animation Thread" java.lang.RuntimeException: Waited 5000ms for: <1a99836, 148083b>[count 2, qsz 0, owner <AWT-EventQueue-0>] - <Animation Thread>

... and when it does work, here's the list:

vailable cameras:
name=PC Cam,size=1600x1200,fps=30
name=PC Cam,size=1600x1200,fps=15
name=PC Cam,size=1600x1200,fps=1
name=PC Cam,size=800x600,fps=30
name=PC Cam,size=800x600,fps=15
name=PC Cam,size=800x600,fps=1
name=PC Cam,size=400x300,fps=30
name=PC Cam,size=400x300,fps=15
name=PC Cam,size=400x300,fps=1
name=PC Cam,size=200x150,fps=30
name=PC Cam,size=200x150,fps=15
name=PC Cam,size=200x150,fps=1
name=PC Cam,size=100x75,fps=30
name=PC Cam,size=100x75,fps=15
name=PC Cam,size=100x75,fps=1
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=1280x720,fps=30
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=1280x720,fps=15
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=1280x720,fps=1
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=640x360,fps=30
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=640x360,fps=15
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=640x360,fps=1
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=320x180,fps=30
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=320x180,fps=15
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=320x180,fps=1
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=160x90,fps=30
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=160x90,fps=15
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=160x90,fps=1
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=80x45,fps=30
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=80x45,fps=15
name=FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in),size=80x45,fps=1

Now, after reading many post on this forum, I've arrived at the following:

1. import processing.video.*;
   
2. Capture cam;
3. void setup() {
4.   size(800, 600, P2D);
5.   frameRate(30);
   
6.   String[] cameras = Capture.list();
    
   
7.   if (cameras.length == 0) {
8.     println("There are no cameras available for capture.");
9.     exit();
10.   } else {
11.     println("Available cameras:");
12.     for (int i = 0; i < cameras.length; i++) {
13.       println(cameras[i]);
14.     }
15.     cam = new Capture(this, "name=PC Cam");
16.     cam.start();    
    
17.   }     
    
18. }
    
19. void draw() {
20.   if (cam.available() == true) {
21.     cam.read();
22.   }
23.   image(cam, 0, 0);
24. }

I think that line 15 is the key here.  The code recognizes that I want my external webcam, but it does not know which resolution I want.  It's smart enough to report that:

Resolution information not available, attempting to open the capture device at 320x240

... but then it grabs a very low res image.  On the bright side, this small image runs at the maximum frame rate.

So!  I feel like I'm close, but I need some guidance about how to pick a specific camera (with resolution and framerate) off my available cam list.  When I just select the list number with

1. cam = new Capture(this, cameras[0]);
   

... I get the correct res but a terribly slow frame rate.  The same applies to lower res camera settings on the list, so I don't think it's just a matter of too much data for Processing to handle.  I've also tried specifying the full camera name from the list:

1.      cam = new Capture(this, "name=PC Cam,size=800x600,fps=30");
   

... but this is also really slow.  Any thoughts on how to effectively select both my res and frame rate are appreciated!

Thanks for reading.