While perusing our photos from the Hooptyrides, Inc. tour you may have noticed [Eric Kurland]’s two handed stereoscopy rig. It’s constructed from two consumer grade Sony DV cameras. The problem with using two separate cameras to make stereo images or video is that a lack of clock sync will make objects appear out of their true position because of differences in framerate. To solve this problem Damir Vran?i? developed the 3D LANC Master. It reads the crystal frequency from one of the cameras and writes to the ram of the other camera using Sony’s LANC protocol. This constant monitoring keeps the clocks within +/- 3ms. The control box also has buttons to power on, zoom, and record in sync. The 3D LANC Master plans are completely open source and work with a large number of Sony cameras. We have more photos of Eric’s rig after the break.
digital cameras hacks993 Articles
Powershot Firmware Hacking
I was under the impression that canon firmware hacking had fallen by the wayside a bit. [random guy] pointed out that Canon firmware hacking is still alive and well, but it’s the smaller consumer models that are getting the attention. Several cameras, like the A610 happen to share the same digic II image processor as my Rebel XT. By uploaded some modified firmware, you can shoot RAW format pics, and get quite a few other features as well. There’s even a HDK (Hack Developer Kit) for rolling your own firmware. Most of the work appears to have been written up in Russian, but there’s an english wiki and guide page to get you going.
RC Digital Camera Interface
This isn’t a brand new hack, but it’s a great solution for most digital cameras that like to go to sleep on you.
[T. Black] put together a nice simple pic circuit to control a cheap aiptek digital camera. It uses a 12C508, a cap and a resistor. The PIC not only activates the shutter, but can wake up the camera from sleep mode. You don’t even have to provide a dedicated control channel – it can piggy-back on the throttle control signal. The hardest part of the project is tapping the signals on the SMD pc board inside the camera. There have been quite a few R/C camera controllers built, but this is certainly one of the most elegant. You can grab the code and schematic from the bottom of the project page.
Automated Slide Cleaning Digitizer
We’ve seen some work on diy digitizers before, but the one that [LP Rondeau] sent in is pretty sweet. It automates the process by advancing a slide projector carriage, blowing the slide clean with compressed air, and activating shutter release from a single controller. The images in this case have been shot in RAW (with a digital rebel ), and the setup allows immediate user review of the images – not to mention using the laptop for storage of all those huge images. The results of the shot and post processing are pretty good.
Digital Rebel XT(350D) IR Removal
[ash] wasn’t satisfied with these instructions, so he provided a complete how-to on gutting a Rebel XT to remove the glass IR filter. This one involves pulling everything down to the CCD. Once the IR glass is removed, it’s replaced with some high grade glass from Edmund Optics. If you’re into camera modding at all, and own a Digital Rebel, the reference links at the end of the how-to are worth a read.
Lazy Psp Player (automatic Woodchopper)
[Andrew]’s love hate relationship with his PSP is impressive. He used a webcam to watch for the appearance of the woodblock and used a small motor (probably serial or parallel actuated) to trigger the button on command. It’s a little silly, but it’s a good exercise for computer visual interaction.
Digital Camera IR Filter Removal
We’ve run across the idea of IR filter removal in the past. [Tony Z] pointed out this nice little how-to on removing the IR filter from a Canon a540 or a530 digital camera. I’m pretty blase about gutting electronics, but even I get a bit nervous about opening up recent model digi-cams. It’s so easy easy to jam sensitive gears… (don’t ask) Aside from my bad mini-dv experiences, the sub-200 6 megapixel platforms could make some interesting projects.
You guys are rocking at the Design Challenge! Keep those entries coming.
