IPod as wireless video input
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Hi, I have a few video iPods that I would like to build into costumes to project the performers POV. I have had a look around for iPod apps, and have found some that stream to web pages using Safari and other apps such as pocketCam (which has not performed well and I would not recommend), iWebcamera (which is better but has some irregularities in Isadora 1.3.0f24) http://www.drahtwerk.biz/EN/Products/iPhone/iWebcamera.aspx these apps make the iPod video a WiFi stream available as an external camera input, this works over a local WiFi network, however only allows one iPod camera video stream at a time.
Other apps for iPod like IPCam and AirBeam http://appologics.com/airbeam display the iPod video In a browser via a http video server offering reasonable quality and frame rates for multiple video streams. AirBeam also offers a MacOS (10.7) component that allows switching between multiple iPod video streams through a Mac desktop app. I have found the free ManyCams to get the Mac OS desktop screen region capture into Issy as a camera source in live capture. I can switch the iPod video stream provided by the app (airBeam) by changing the URL in the browser associated with each iPod, or have multiple cameras by using multiple browser windows on the desktop, but it does pose many limitations using this method.I suspect there is a more elegant way to do this? Perhaps a Quartz Composer component? The AirBeam app documentation has a brief line about integration with Quartz Composer through Syphon. found this implementation - http://code.google.com/p/syphon-camera.UpDate 2016: http://troikatronix.com/community/#/discussion/2775/ios-isadora-video-capture-app-development-github-repoHere are the github repos for1. iOS camera stream to Isadora : [https://github.com/bonemap/iCapture](https://github.com/bonemap/iCapture)2. iOS app capture video to Isadora plugin : [https://github.com/bonemap/iCapturePlugin](https://github.com/bonemap/iCapturePlugin)bestbonemap -
Syphon Camera looks pretty good. There is a net version for ip cameras, maybe one of the apps you have for your ipod will make your ipod camera look like a network camera? You will have to be on mac to use this. It seems like a good workflow but it is going to be a cpu hog. It takes a lot of work (from what I have seen) to get IP cameras into a computer, especially through WIFI, then you will have textures coming from your suphon client (a QC patch running in Izzy) and then from here you will have to convert form image to video if you are using non-qc or non image actors in your chain. It is a little neater than your first solution although there is just as many steps (does anyone know much aout many cam? does it output image type stream (graphics card) or video(CPU))?
As an aside, I am working on a project that uses very cheap wireless cameras, I have only 2 working at once and it was a bit of a hassle and I still need capture cards but it is reliable and the cameras were cheaper than Ipods (60 each), having said that I now have small head-mounted wireless cameras.Fred -
I don't know if this helps because I only tested it with one iPhone, so I don't know if it works with multiple devices. I have used epoccam and the quality is really good, after installing the driver it shows up in Isadora as a camera source. They have a free version supporting 640x480 @30fps and a pay version supporting 1280x720 @30fps. There is no watermark in the streamed video. HERE is a comparison to other apps
Best,
Michel -
Thanks for those leads. EpoCam is a good advance on PocketCam, however it is only a 1 - 1 solution. Looks like I will have to get to work to compile something that can switch the video stream accross iPods. Something like a CollaboraCam for the Mac OS desktop? CollaboraCam is only iOS at the moment. AirBeam is almost there with the Mac OS Pro version - it is just its interface is too proprietary and busy to be useful. Bonemap
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How about Airplay, I use it and it works quite well. It's not the perfect solution because you can not use it in Isadora or other apps it only shows up on the desktop, but you can tell the app to send a device’s screen to a specific display. You can get up to 4 devices on a Mac. HERE is a comparison from Airplay and Reflection.
Best,
Michel -
Today's trials included running up EpocCam app which has a MacOS driver in beta version, this worked on a MacBook Pro running 10.5 but failed to operate on my project rig running 10.7 OS X. I ended up with better results with the app iWebcamera which worked successfully in 10.7 but only handles one iOS device at a time. Thanks for the suggestion of AirPlay and AirServer. II have had a look, and it's an app that has potential to 'mirror' the screen of iOS devices, however the mirror function is only available with iPad 2-3 and iPhone 4S. This suggests iPod touch only allows airPlay enabled apps to stream using airServer to a Mac display. Thanks Bonemap
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If you jailbreak the iPods you can then get full airplay desktop mirroring...
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HI,
Thanks for the jailbreak suggestion, however the AirPlay option is not a solution for the production I am working on. I have started to look at the syphon and quartz composer option but do I need to upgrade to a core video version of Isadora to work with Quartz Composer compositions?bestbonemap -
Yes, you need the core video upgrade.
Best,
Michel
