Thats why I suggested the Prefab software product - its specifically designed for AppleScripting apps that don't have Applescript dictionaries, via GUI scripting. It might be a bit clumsy, depending on how much you'd have to talk to RemoteCapture, but its doable.
Could you at least remove the lighting issue by letting the person control it? Give them a couple of spots with dimmer switches and let them choose it? You might get a whole other angle in weirdly lit camera fun.
Here's an article on how to modify a webcam to use infra-red light, and it says use IR LEDs to illuminate the subject...also has the plus of giving funky colours too!
As for capturing video...I'm not a real mac guru, so I don't know how hard it would be to do, but sometime like xawtv under linux gives you both video and still capture code, I don't if there is anything equiv for the mac to Video4Linux API.
most CCds will pick up IR. point a TV remote at a camera, push some buttons, and you'll usually see the IR diode glow a blue-white.
Actually, it might be worth seeing if a remote control held at really close range will illuminate a subject at all, and if it does, buy a bunch of IR LEDs and have them light the subject.
Re: half-assed hacks and the "Image Capture" appglenraJanuary 22 2007, 23:17:16 UTC
The "Image Capture" app on the iMac uses a flash (with the built-in camera) to capture a decent low-light picture. What it does is turn the display on full white for a split second while it takes the picture.
Actually, how hard would it be to make the computer trigger an external flash, then synch the capture using the isight to that flash? John loves building crazy hardware like serial port triggers.
I tried looking to see if anyone has a USB controlled camera flash, and gave up trying to search around all the USB flash memory devices.
synch could be tricky. Flash is often 1/8000th of a second, so you'd have to monkey with the timings to make sure the flash fired at the exact moment that the shutter was open.
Otherwise, easy. There are two connections on the hotshoe. Connect them and the flash fires. Just be careful, because old flashes would let quite a lot of current flow (500v sometimes) through that connection.
It's a video camera, fire a flash and it'll just bloom. AGC takes a while; and if you turn it off, then you get to pick between "picture" and "no picture".
you could still test that, and partly cover the flash. just do a raw video capture of the isight on the booth, and fire off a flash. a quick skim of the video would show how close to viable it might be. When I've shot live shows, and people have taken flash photos, the gain hasn't been too much of a problem, but the white balance tended to be a bit off.
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http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Webcam-Into-an-Infrared-Camera.
As for capturing video...I'm not a real mac guru, so I don't know how hard it would be to do, but sometime like xawtv under linux gives you both video and still capture code, I don't if there is anything equiv for the mac to Video4Linux API.
Here's another IR project: http://dolphinhome.net/proj_1.html
I guess that just about any CCD camera can be modified to use IR...
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Actually, it might be worth seeing if a remote control held at really close range will illuminate a subject at all, and if it does, buy a bunch of IR LEDs and have them light the subject.
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John loves building crazy hardware like serial port triggers.
I tried looking to see if anyone has a USB controlled camera flash, and gave up trying to search around all the USB flash memory devices.
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Otherwise, easy. There are two connections on the hotshoe. Connect them and the flash fires. Just be careful, because old flashes would let quite a lot of current flow (500v sometimes) through that connection.
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