From owner-freebsd-questions  Mon Dec 16 01:13:49 1996
Return-Path: <owner-questions>
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) id BAA13970
          for questions-outgoing; Mon, 16 Dec 1996 01:13:49 -0800 (PST)
Received: from Campino.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE (campino.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE [137.226.116.240])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) with ESMTP id BAA13942
          for <freebsd-questions@freefall.freebsd.org>; Mon, 16 Dec 1996 01:12:28 -0800 (PST)
Received: from gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de (gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de [137.226.31.2]) by Campino.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE (RBI-Z-5/8.6.12)
	with ESMTP id KAA17339; Mon, 16 Dec 1996 10:14:08 +0100 (MET)
Received: (from kuku@localhost) by gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de (8.8.3/8.6.9) id KAA12335; Mon, 16 Dec 1996 10:26:20 +0100 (MET)
From: Christoph Kukulies <kuku@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de>
Message-Id: <199612160926.KAA12335@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de>
Subject: Re: B/W Quickcam information?
In-Reply-To: <4mh8RDG00YUu08TCA0@andrew.cmu.edu> from Robert N Watson at "Dec 15, 96 06:18:39 pm"
To: rnw+@andrew.cmu.edu (Robert N Watson)
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1996 10:26:19 +0100 (MET)
Cc: freebsd-questions@freefall.freebsd.org
Reply-To: Christoph Kukulies <kuku@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de>
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL28 (25)]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

> 
> I noticed that the 2.1.5 release notes (and not surprisingly, the kernel
> :) list support for the quickcam -- is there software available that can
> be used to grab frames from it from the command line?  I'd be interested
> in grabbing images from it every 5 minutes and putting them on the web
> in an unattended manner using crontab/etc..  Unfortunately, I'm a bit
> squeezed for time as I'm leaving town for several weeks on Tuesday so
> would like to pick it up Monday as long as I know it can do what I need.
>  I visited the third-party developers page and found references to vic
> and nv but have never used these before so am unsure of their function
> or compatibility.

This snippet (originally from Seppo Kallio?) does probably what you
want:
-------
#!/bin/csh
set valo = 170       # start -w from 170
set count = 1      # do not loop forever
set contrast = 220
set a=999999
set bright=150

1:
echo $valo $count  $a
/usr/sbin/qcamcontrol -b $bright -c $contrast -w $valo -x 320 -y 240 >! /tmp/qcam.ppm
set a = `/usr/bin/hexdump -cv /tmp/qcam.ppm | grep "\?" | wc -c`
if ( $a > 200000 ) then
  @ valo = $valo - 10
  @ count = $count - 1
  if ( $count == 0 ) then
    exit 1
  endif
  goto 1
endif

ppmtogif /tmp/qcam.ppm >/tmp/qcam.gif
xv /tmp/qcam.gif
-------
Your values may vary. Also I've learnt that the white balance is a fixed
value which is unique for every camera instance and maybe it's better
to vary the brightness value. Anyway, you have something to start from.

> 
> Thanks in advance for any help..
> Robert Watson
> 
> 

--Chris Christoph P. U. Kukulies kuku@gil.physik.rwth-aachen.de