Connecting an external viceo camera to a Windows Mobile device - Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General

I am working on a project that required that we use a video camera that is external to the phone. We are looking at USB cameras and I was wondering if anyone knew of any solution that would allow us to use the external USB connected camera instead of the build in cameras on most phones.
Thanks.

guess not, for the same reason as mentioned in the below tread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=400616

ledrocnoc said:
I am working on a project that required that we use a video camera that is external to the phone. We are looking at USB cameras and I was wondering if anyone knew of any solution that would allow us to use the external USB connected camera instead of the build in cameras on most phones.
Thanks.
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Click to collapse
Are there SDIO cameras? Failing that, it might be possible to use a LAN based camera, and connect to it through WiFi...

Yep, there are some SDIO cameras available
http://images.google.pl/images?q=sd...pl:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi
Of course if the phone doesn't have a SD/MMC slot, only a miniSD one, it won't fit in. But i guess that wiring the camera to a miniSD-microSD adapter might work, since both these cards are essentially the same, and the only difference is the form factor.
There are also CF-based cameras, but i haven't seen a hone equipped with a CF slot for a while.

mr_deimos said:
Ye, there are some SDIO cameras available
http://images.google.pl/images?q=sd...pl:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi
There are also CF-based cameras, but i haven't seen a hone equied with a CF slot for a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC Sedna has a CF slot as do many HP devices.

I thought some-one wrote a USB camera driver for windows mobile?
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS7191593413.html
I expect you are going to need a certain amount of expertise to use it.
Surur

surur said:
I thought some-one wrote a USB camera driver for windows mobile?
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS7191593413.html
I expect you are going to need a certain amount of expertise to use it.
Surur
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Windows CE 5.0 USB Webcam
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Click to collapse
Although WM and WinCE use the same basic code, WinCE has USB host functionality in most implementations, WM does not.

Thanks for the input.
Here are follow up questions:
- Are there any devices running WM5 or 6 that implement (in hardware) USB Host?
- Assuming that a WM5/6 device with the right HW can be found (see question above), how big of a job would it be to develop a driver for an external USB camera (assuming I might already have the code for a Windows 2000 / XP / Vista one)?
Txs

Most of the FSC Loox devices have an USB-Host.
I have a Loox 720 and a Loox N560 with this function.

Also the Toshiba G900 (and maybe also other Gx00 models) does have a host USB. But i have no idea about how hard would it be to get a webcam working on it.

ya i dont have any idea about it if we doo it better clint it like this

Related

Jasjar + Camera

Would it be possible to connect a digital camera to the Jasjar so that I can send photos through my GPRS connection. Or does this require USB host capability (and thus a new ROM)?
Thanks!
Hi
It's not possible, and as far as I know there's no software to emulate USB host.
Still, if you have some BT/IRDA fancy camera, you may send photos to your PDA.
Personally I take advantage of SD card camera, which is flash-card compatibile with PDAs. It may not be very quick (changing SDs) but it works
OK, unfortunately I already have a camera...I suppose I need to use a CF-->SD converter in the camera. Have you heard of a SD-->CF converter (I know it would be big and stick out...just curious).
Yep... it exists.
Just google for "cf sd adapter"
One example here:
http://www.directshopper.de/minolta-cf-sd-adapter_compact-flash_p

Digital Video Recorder (DVR)

I gave thought to the idea of using the Athena as a DVR - ability to record from external sources (TV, DVD, etc) in similar fashion to an Archos device etc.
Could someone with technical knowledge enlighten us about this possibility please?
Peace all over.
Im not certain of the devices capabilities, but I do know it sports the ability to be a USB host, and uses USB 2.0 and seems to have moderately quick internal data bandwidth coupled with a sizeable hardrive !! all this coupled with the fact that it has been done before as a Compact flash add on for any PDA with a CF slot !! and ultimately yes I think it is possible, and maybe even all that is required is a re-write of the BTwincap driver to allow many of the USB TV capture devices to run on win mobile instead of a normal computer.
ice_coffee said:
I do know it sports the ability to be a USB host, and uses USB 2.0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The specs tell only about USB1.1 host. There is an USB2.0 chip in Athena
( http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=AthenaResearch ) but i guess it is used to connect the 8GB disk.
even USB 1.1 is more than good enough for 320X240 25 FPS video capture with stereo sound !!

External USB hard drive

Does anybody know if it is possible to connect the phone to a USB hard drive?
only with flame and Athena as they are the only ones which support usb host
other devices cant use usb devices only be used by usb hosts normaly a pc
There was actually someone who developed a working hard disk storage driver for windows mobile but last I checked the site no longer offered it. Searched for days trying to find the file elsewhere. No luck. Cant think of the company that made the driver.
I'm bumping this as I am also after the same sort of program / utility.
I want to be able to access my External HD and view / play files off it... anyone able to help me out?
Maybe with a external powersupplied disk
Rudegar said:
only with flame and Athena as they are the only ones which support usb host...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct
Our Hermes has no usb host support. I found a topic at forum.brighthand.com which suggested the host functionality could be added with a usb host driver. I found the software (attached zip) but alas... Though I did exactly as the 'manual' (readme.txt) explained, the usb-stick did not appear in my explorer.
Possibly an external drive with external power supply might work because the hermes usb port is simply not powerful enough to supply the power to the usb-stick. However I did not "explore that possibility" (don't have one ) and chances are 'just a driver' is not enough and hermes lacks "usb host hardware".
dident read the post because you dident give a link to the post just the forum
but i doubt that it's a general thing
many pda's have usbhost in the cpu itself but htc never connected those connectors
so it's not wired to the connector they have their own usb chip
so if the post you read said it about any other pda then htc based one it could be that that manufactor did connect the usb but dident supply the driver which would then be fixed with what you found
Rudegar said:
many pda's have usbhost in the cpu itself but htc never connected those connectors
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like there could be the potential for a hardware hack...
heh, nice try. but it will end like GPS HW hack on the TyTN (aka Hermes). it is not worth it, I mean there is easy way, just buy device with GPS integrated, or buy external. I have electronic skills and proper tools, I can do such things but it is too complicated. in that hermes was problem, that antena was not properly connected and you can never get a GPS lock. I guess that with usb host is the same. missing circuitry.
Deuce Nitro said:
Sounds like there could be the potential for a hardware hack...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yepp!
Hi,
this is correct
sinmae said:
heh, nice try. but it will end like GPS HW hack on the TyTN (aka Hermes). it is not worth it, I mean there is easy way, just buy device with GPS integrated, or buy external. I have electronic skills and proper tools, I can do such things but it is too complicated. in that hermes was problem, that antena was not properly connected and you can never get a GPS lock. I guess that with usb host is the same. missing circuitry.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The USB host port of the Samsung CPU is used to connect to the internal GSM/GPRS chipset. So no chance to break it up!
If someone would ever hack this hardware part, the result would be a hermes without radio.
The engineers at HTC used the USB host port to achieve the necessary bandwith for high speed data connection to the GSM/GPRS chips from Qualcomm.
Best regards,
scholbert
thats an interesting information, thanx
scholbert said:
The engineers at HTC used the USB host port to achieve the necessary bandwith for high speed data connection to the GSM/GPRS chips from Qualcomm.
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hardware limitations of Snapvue

just to confirm my belief, the following hardware components are not wired to the Qualcomm 7200 CPU, therefore no amount of hacking/cooking of rom's will ever make them accessible from within Snapvue:
Wifi
SD Card Reader
webcam
hard drive
Is this correct? Am I missing any other components?
yes but can be re enabled. it just needs time.
OK- don't bite my head of - I greatly value your input and given the other responses in the forum know that you have / had access to the actual unit.
The question was literally about hard-wired... a physical connection between the WM part of the unit and the SD / WiFi etc. components... given your answer, you say that they ARE in fact hardwired but the software/drivers to access those components isn't there yet?
I'm on the verge of getting a device like this but if it cannot be enabled (SD card mostly) because of the physical limitation of the device I will not proceed with the 'getting the device'...
Thanks again for the clarification - your input is very much appreciated.
Isn't wifi built in the Qualcomm chip?
citivolus said:
just to confirm my belief, the following hardware components are not wired to the Qualcomm 7200 CPU, therefore no amount of hacking/cooking of rom's will ever make them accessible from within Snapvue:
Wifi
SD Card Reader
webcam
hard drive
Is this correct? Am I missing any other components?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hi citivolus... have you ever had a HPC?
anyway, SD *is* wired to the MSM7200, the SPL can access it
i think GPS is possibly fine too
as for the wifi and hdd, i've yet to check those.
Hi cmonex, yes it's me from HPC:Factor, hence my intense interest in the WM6 side of the Shift! Sounds like you've already confirmed that we can access the SD card from within WM6. Would love to hear if you can access Wifi!
The WiFi card shows up as an SDIO interface Marvell sd8688 wireless LAN SDIO adapter under Vista. That should mean it's possible to access it under WinMo.
citivolus said:
Hi cmonex, yes it's me from HPC:Factor, hence my intense interest in the WM6 side of the Shift! Sounds like you've already confirmed that we can access the SD card from within WM6. Would love to hear if you can access Wifi!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol, hey there
well just to be clear, all i can say is the SPL can access it, so hopefully only the driver needs to be found... as far as i know beta roms had it. i'm sure we can see that soon.
as for the wifi, yes it is an SDIO wifi adapter built in, that's all we know so far but that sounds promising.
does the webcam work in WM6? you can test this with Microsoft Portrait.
thanks!
citivolus said:
does the webcam work in WM6? you can test this with Microsoft Portrait.
thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It gives errors such as 'get camera information failed' and 'can't retrieve camera info'.

Video out?

Is there any way to get video out with the Titan?
I have a CD deck in my truck that supports video out and thought it would be neat if I could have Tom Tom on the screen.
bump... i have iGo, SlingPlayer Mobile and TCPMP all installed on my Titan, so a video out function would be LOVE-LEE! and surely people would donate to video out software
It's not possible, it's a hardware function and the hardware doesn't support it.
I know the old Dell Axims used to have this functionality. They had a "video card" you could plug in that had a composite video connection on the other end. Perhaps someone makes something that could be hooked up through the mini-usb port or even the micro SD slot?
i'm thinking thru the miniUSB... i dread touching microSD at all costs
it dont support usb host so usb is input only cant talk to other devices
only options are SDIO or bluetooth
What is SDIO?
Americanmetal said:
What is SDIO?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Secure Digital Input / Output (your memory card slot)
Wiki SDIO
I use MyMobiler to display my PPC on my CarPC. Pretty cool, but doesn't help you any, sorry.
SDIO is used most often in reference to a input/output device, i.e. a wireless card, interface card, network card, etc. Memory is usually just called SD or SDHC depending on the sizes.
I do think SDIO addresses both of these, but the common names for them are as I described above.
BTC
Ahh I see
So are there any bluetooth receivers that output video via RCA cables?
bedoig said:
I use MyMobiler to display my PPC on my CarPC. Pretty cool, but doesn't help you any, sorry.
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Click to collapse
mp3car? if it doesnt take things far enough off topic to upset the board post a pic!

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