OT: Time lapse kind of stuff I think :)

Jsnkc wrote on 10/30/2003, 11:00 AM

Ok, I am asking this on behalf of someone else hoping that someone knows more about it than I do.

Here's what we have, there is a new building being built, the company building this building wants to have a time lapse pictures taken every day to show the progress of the building being built. We will have a camera set up at a building nearby to capture everything, we just need a way to automatically have the camera send a picture back to a server at certian intervals throughout the day, maybe 50 shots a day or so. They were hoping to have a MiniDV camera set up going through firewire into a computer, just so you can get an idea of the setup.

Any ideas would be very helpful regarding software programs that might be able to do this, they basically want a way to get the pictures without having to be there all the time to take and upload the pictures to a server.

Comments

RichMacDonald wrote on 10/30/2003, 12:07 PM

Is that a "camera" or a "video camera"? If the latter, you can run the camera into a laptop via firewire, and have scenalyzer capture every n'th frame. You'll need a power supply up there as well, but you can avoid having to run a line back to server...unless you're going wireless. John Meyer is the guy here who originally suggested this to me.

Can anyone say how far a firewire connection can run? Perhaps you want to avoid the local computer and run a line into the existing server within the building.

If its a camera, does the camera exist or are you buying one? If the latter, may I suggest the Veo family of options. We use their "wireless observer" in the office. Link below. Basically, it uses a wireless connection to broadcast pictures to your server. And there are different setup and control options, e.g., you can have it take a picture every n seconds and send it somewhere via email. Resolution is 640x480 pixels.

Veo link: http://www.veo.com/Observer-Wireless/default.asp

Aside: We're using it in the office as a sensor (motion detection and remote control) as part of a "big brother" type software development app, e.g., as a home alarm network, emergency response, that sort of thing. We're very happy with the Veo. It all works as advertised. We're able to control the camera and see its pictures/video from a PocketPC, but that is from our development effort; you can't buy this capability yet :-) You could always send the pictures automatically to a website, so the client can logon and see the progress in "real time".

Our Veo cost $300, but we needed motion detection and remote control. You might be able to get away with a simpler web cam.

If your camera is existing, I can't help.

I assume you know all about creating a time lapse video with the results using Vegas?

P.S. For the time lapse video, I've never done this kind of work over months, but you're going to have to pay attention to locking the camera down so you get a stable frame. Plus, one picture per day is going to suffer from changing weather conditions, i.e., light. I'd consider taking several pics during the day and selecting one or more based on matching conditions.

SonyEPM wrote on 10/30/2003, 1:52 PM

The Sony PDX10 (for example) does interval recording: record x-frames every y-minutes. Works great.

You'd need to deal with power, tape changes, camera security, weather etc...but you knew that.

Jsnkc wrote on 10/30/2003, 2:36 PM

Thanks for the advice guys.

jbrawn wrote on 10/30/2003, 5:17 PM

I recently started doing frame by frame copies of 8mm films. I have a DV camera plugged into a PC using firewire. I'm running Dodcap on the PC. You can download it from www.alternaware.com. This allows you to snag a frame each time you click on the capture button.

Your next step is to get a scripting shareware that sends the mouse click every 20 minutes or whatever.

I've asked the Dodcap folks to give us a timer for capturing frames on their next version. So far I haven't heard back. Perhaps you could ask for that as well, and they'll start to see a useful time lapse market...

Good Luck,

John.

P.S. I guess I should admit that I took apart a mouse, connected the left button wires to the second hand of a clock and a piece of foil stuck to the clock face with masking tape. I got a good click every minute, plus or minus 2 seconds.

J.