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[mipsy]

Hi,

I've built a robotic mount to drive around and provide pan/tilt capabilities to a webcam.   

The problem is that I'm using a wired webcam and I'd like to go wireless.  With the X10 camera does the orientation of the antenna affect the signal and as such would it be feasible to drive a camera around?  Also, does anyone know if the video to PC USB adapter that they use is DirectShow compatible?

Thanks in advance.

Mipsy

[dave w]

The antenna IS directional. For your application I would use a camera with an omni "stick" antenna. "Dave X10" would have insight since he has done the mobile X10 cam project. I don't remember if he stayed with the directional antenna or not.

There have been users who have converted their X10 directional antenna to an omni with good results. (May be instructions on the forum). My guess is the range will probably drop considerably if you convert the directional antenna to an omni.  It seems incongruous to put a directional antenna on a pan-N-tilt capable camera. My guess is; X10 did it to give camera max range (i.e. usuable range in the average home) since their transmit power is so low. $0.02

[Brian H]

Dave_X10's Red Ninja camera. http://www.youtube.com/suitmanIM#p/u/5/Ft9-yxNb47Q

[dave w]

Thanks Brian!   BTW "I.F." is meant as a true compliment.

I notice Dave did dump the directional antenna for a onmi. Actually looks a little like a 800MHz coaxial antenna that you and I are intimatley familier with...or did you work with portables?

[Brian H]

Yes it does look like the antenna was changed from the original one.

"I.F." No offense taken.

No I was a Base Station and Mobile Technician. Portables where too cramped for me and with my luck would pinch something and make smoke. 
Though I did see an early pager after the owner put it in his pocket and the charging terminals shorted on some coins. Can you say hot pants. 

[HA Dave]

I've built a robotic mount to drive around and provide pan/tilt capabilities to a webcam. 
The problem is that I'm using a wired webcam and I'd like to go wireless.  With the X10 camera does the orientation of the antenna affect the signal and as such would it be feasible to drive a camera around? 

It does sorta look like I've done something like what your looking at doing. My R.E.D. was designed to chase deer, or raccons outside. I did mod both the ninja and the X10 cameras antenna. You might want to look at an IP pan & tilt camera if your plan is to view on your PC and NOT run outdoors.

[mipsy]

Wow, thanks for all the replies!

It sounds like the X10 could work out after all if I replaced the antenna as explained.  Really my requirements are only that it be wireless, omnidirectional, powered by batteries, and have a DirectShow driver (usable as a webcam) since that's the technology that I use for the video analysis portion.   I'm kind of new to the hardware side of these projects and as such have avoided cameras that have to be connected to the wall.  Of course, that's just DC power and easy to supply.

I guess another possibility would be to use a magnetic sensor as a compass or maybe a gyro to position the existing antenna, but that sounds error prone.

How good is the image by the time that it is captured by the PC?  Would it be clean enough for object tracking?

Thanks,

mipsy

[HA Dave]

.... How good is the image by the time that it is captured by the PC?  Would it be clean enough for object tracking?

Here is a Video showing both: A video camera recording footage of the robot. AND video recorded from the wireless broadcast from the robots camera (the robots view). Which I received and then recorded... [to the same video camera as used to record the original footage of the robot]. I used the camera views to drive the outside robot.... from the inside.

The camera used in this early video... was not an X10 camera. I think X10 has better video quality.