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Resolved Resolved by Jeremie!

Need A USB Camera Recommendation

Hey all, it's been a lonnng time.  And honestly, the last two years have been very difficult on my family and I, but re-fitting my iRobot sculpture has been helping me get through it all.



I've replaced all the cell phone batteries with battery blanks and adapted a new, faster face-tablet so it can run more videos, also with a battery blank (using the voltage regulator from the original battery, of course), so I've removed all chemical reactions from the sculpture.
But now it's time to hardwire the EZB V4/2 and a USB camera to the MS Surface Pro that is housed in the pedestal (a couple years late, sorry DJ).  So I'm looking for recommendations on a USB camera, preferable one that doesn't come from China (because I don't want to wait that long) that works with the new Synthiam ARC.
Or will just ANY USB camera work with ARC?
I don't need a housing and I can use one of my old EZ_Robot camera's heat sinks if need be.  Here's an example of what I'm looking for (but it's in China)
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Camera Link

Most of what I'm finding are wide-angle, security-type cameras.  Will that work okay with face tracking?  Are there USB cameras that work with ARC better than others?  Any links would be much appreciated.
I'm working on getting the EZB hard wired to the MS Surface as well, thanks to all the old threads and particularly, to Dave Schulpius, so I think I have that covered.  And yes, I've upgraded the firmware so I'm making some progress.
I hope you all have been healthy and reasonably happy these past couple of years.  It's good to be back:)
-Mac

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USA
#2   — Edited
Hey @Jeremie, thanks for chiming in.  It looks like a good choice and a good price, and it has a long enough cable that I won't have to add to it.  There's also a good disassembly video on YouTube to boot.  I'll wait a day or two to see if anyone else has a suggestion before purchasing but I think this might do it.
I understand you're actually with EZ_Robot.  Thanks for hanging out here and offering help:)
I'm sorry you and your family had a rough go as well.  Mary and I are sending good juju your way.
-Mac
PRO
Canada
#4  
@Mac, no prob! Yeah I still frequent here on the weekdays and am heavily invested in Synthiam and the community:D
USA
#5  
@smiller29, yeah man, I read your thread a couple days ago, but for some reason I couldn't find that camera on Amazon unless from China.  But your link worked, so thanks!  How did it work out for you?

@Jeremie, well sir, we definitely benefit from your presence:)
USA
#7  
Thanks smiller29, good to know!
#8  
Looks great.
Very creative with the spine
USA
#9  
Thanks Perry, it's been years in the making.  But rather than 3-D printing, everything was was made from clay, I made molds, cast in resin, yadda yadda.  The spine phones run short clips of robots through the ages.  The face tablet plays videos of students' and friends' faces, interlaced with video clips of humans destroying the earth, and each other.  The reason robots take over the world in Asimov's book of the same name.  It's one of my favorite sculptures, for sure.
You can see others in the series here.
-Mac
USA
#10  
I've decided to go with Jeremie's camera recommendation because of the longer cord, so I'm giving them the credit.  Sorry smiller, I like the form-factor of yours better but don't feel like soldering-in longer wires.
And another shout-out to Dave Schulpius for helping me figure out the other parts I'll need.:D
-Mac
USA
#11  
Thanks again, Jeremie and smiller!
PRO
USA
#12  
Very nice video, cool robot gestures...
USA
#13   — Edited
Thanks EzAng.  That's actually an old video.  Since then, I've added a vertical servo to the camera so it can lock on faces of people of different heights.  And the face-tablet (which is now a Galaxy Tab-E), runs about 40 videos of different faces (about 10 seconds each) interlaced with videos such as nuclear weapons tests, strip mining, polluted waters, the January 6th insurrection, race hatred, etc.
In this series of sculptures, The Classics, I've really tried to capture the prophetic nature of the books, and I feel iRobot does this the best of all of them.
And I have this thing that I call "integrity of concept".  For instance, in my piece The Invisible Man: A Self Portrait Progressing, I didn't want fake MRIs and X-rays, I wanted to use the real thing (my doctors love this), so when I conceived of iRobot, I thought "Uh oh, I'm not a robot builder, and know nothing about coding!"  And thanks to EZ-Robot, DJ, and this wonderful community, I still don't, lol.  And I'm fine with that.  But my sculpture about robots is actually a little robotic, and that's ultimately what I wanted, and what the sculpture needed.
Anyway, sorry for being verbose.  I like talking about my work, lol.

This one is still my wife's favorite, though.
The War of the World: Big Boys and Their Tinker Toys[url=http://studio407.net/the_war_of_the_world.htm]

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Cherry, copper, and copper hollow point bullets; 40x38x38"
PRO
Synthiam
#14  
Hey mac! Good to see you back. I’ve always been fond of your artistic and technical robot fusion:)
USA
#15  
DJ!  Good to hear from you, too, my friend!  And good to see that you're thriving:)
I'm finally getting around to hardwiring this thing so it can be in some art exhibitions.  Uhh.....you know, like you suggested some three years ago, lol.
-Mac
USA
#16  
I ended up buying both the MS Lifecam and the one suggested by Smiller, just to cover the bases.  But neither have a heatsink like the EZB camera.  Do you folks think I need one?  It won't be in an enclosure but will run for weeks at a time.
Thanks,
-Mac
PRO
Synthiam
#17  
I don’t think either of those cameras need a heat sink. The ezrobot camera does because it uses an untraditional method of transmitting the video. Most cameras are usb and there’s a selection of usb chips available that does the job. But with the ezrobot camera, it’s uart and therefore required a unique solution that needed a heat sink. 

so I’m pretty sure the other cameras won’t get hot at all. I’ve never experienced them getting hot. Might not hurt to run a test overnight and see how warm they get.
USA
#18  
Thanks DJ, just what I needed to hear:)
The EZB camera was so easy to mount to the vertical servo.  Both of these others are going to take some fabrication, but I'll get 'er done.  I've also made the USB/Serial cable for the EZB but I haven't tested it yet.  Fingers crossed!
USA
#19  
Success! (so far).  I made the new wiring harness using the USB/Serial adapter recommended by Dave Schulpius, a good six feel long, and used the MS lifecam recommended by Jeremie and so far, no disconnects.  I was a little worried about using a USB hub with the MS Surface but no problems and the face tracking is nice and responsive.
The one thing I hadn't considered is that since there is no disconnect at the camera, if I have trouble I'll have to remove the new Galaxy Tab-E from the head to get the camera out.  And that can be tricky since the glass screen can easily be broken when removing.  Ask me how I know:(
But since I've been struggling with wireless disconnects, this hardwiring was well worth it.
Thanks everyone for your help.:)

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#20  
Yes, it will work with face tracking? No, USB cameras that I have tried all work about the same. The main difference is the resolution.
USA
#21  
Thanks for the input, TMesserschmidt.  Everything is now hardwired and the camera is working great.  And no disconnects, yay!  My problem now is that the video player for the faces, MX Player Pro, shuts down after a couple of days.  Trying to learn "Tasker" to automate the booting and video play process and hopefully keep the player alive.  Tasker isn't very intuitive, though, so it's taking a while.  I've got it to where the tablet will boot, bypass the swipe/lock screen, and launch MX Player Pro, but I'm missing a variable or something so that the videos will automatically play.  I wouldn't want a gallery employee to have to remove the face from the tablet to restart the player.  That's just asking too much.
Anyway, thanks again:)
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