Looking for a Multi-Head, Detachable-Head Camera

I have a project that would be facilitated by the use of a multi-head
digital camera. I would like to have ten image sensors feed into a
central body. The distance from the image sensor to the control and
memory body will have run lengths up to 20 feet (or 10 feet, if that's
the best I can get). As I envision it, each sensor would be at the end
of a cable (maybe USB), which would plug into a small box. A wireless
version would also be possible, which would connect the sensors with
the image body. My quick search of the Web has not turned up such a
camera, though.

Will I need to design and manufacture my own, or does someone know of
one on the market, already?

If I need to design and manufacture my own, would anyone else likely
to be interested in such a device?

 

Maybe if you told us what you wanted to do, rather than how you
thought it should be done, we can come up with a solution.

As asked, I can't think of any device that will do as you describe.
Each sensor would require a lens, body, something to act as a shutter,
etc. Seems like a camera to me.
Maybe 10 small, inexpensive cameras with wireless triggers would do
the trick?

 

I'd start by looking into the communications technology involved in
(home) security cameras.

Upgrading the sending units and central display(s) to digi standards may
be the route to follow. It might require a camera for screen shots, or
computer display for screen captures.

As the man says: if we don't have an idea what your output will be used
for, we have no hint about where to begin.

If it is for upskirts, I take it all back and give this advice: "Sod
off".


Frank ess

 

That's an idea, but the resolution on those usually is too low.

[snip]

I'll say this in different posts, but my goal is to make my vehicle
(currently, a pickup truck, but maybe some other type of vehicle at
various times) a data collection device. At the least, I want to
capture quality still and video images of everything that happens all
around me, the entire hemisphere surrounding my vehicle. I can detail
more in other posts.

Nah, that only takes one camera. I wouldn't have enough places to
stick ten.

Seriously, in most of my photographs, I try to avoid having any people
visible. I take a lot of pictures of buildings and landscapes. I would
like to use the output of this project for virtual driving. Maybe I
could even stick it into a driving simulator, so a person could see
what it would be like to drive through Dallas, for example. If someone
needed to know how to reach an unfamiliar destination, this would show
them how to get there and what everything looks like along the way.
Or, they could simply enjoy the scenery.

 

[snip]

I'll mention this several times, but what I want to do is to turn my
vehicle (currently, a pickup truck) into a mobile data collection
device. I have started with cameras. I want to collect a complete
hemisphere of images, both still and video, and I want the image
quality fairly high (some of the images might make it to print, but
the project is intended to be displayed on a computer screen).

You might get some idea of where I'm going with this by looking at a
few of the pictures I posted to a Web page from a recent trip. I took
over 1400 photographs on this trip. I would like to have taken a lot
more, and I would like to have gotten more video. I also would like to
have taken the pictures without having to worry so much about hitting
something while I was driving.

At the same time, I enjoy looking at videos of myself, so I would like
to have interior cameras watching me as I drive. So, a camera pointed
in each of the ordinal directions, plus one looking straight up, plus
at least one interior. I have sketched out between 3 and 10 cameras,
depending on how involved I get.

If I get really fancy, I am going want to have a track-mounted
telescope in the back, so I will be able to drive to the outback, put
down my stablizer arms, open the top, and do astrophotography.

When I return home, all the photographs collected on my mobile server
would be downloaded automatically to my home server. Perhaps I would
use Wi-Fi, or maybe have an optical cable.

I also want to be able to access the contents of my mobile vehicle
server wirelessly via a handheld computer (PDA). I could also use the
PDA to control any of the cameras independently.

If I get even fancier, the internal cameras could follow me when I
point at something, and tell an external camera to zoom in on whatever
I point at.

OK, for now, I just want to mount some cameras on my truck.

Inexpensive is good, but I want good quality, too.

 

Yeah, 640x480 if you're lucky, sometimes half that.

So what resolution do you need? What kind of frame rate?

Dave

 

"Good quality" is meaningless on its own. 640x480 is good quality
video, but awful for a still camera. Is 2 megapixels more than you need
or is 6 megapixels too little? It all depends on what you want to do
with the images.

Dave

 

(Dave Martindale) wrote in message
[snip]

I would like at least 1024 x 768 for still photos, and at least 30
fps. Resolution is not so important to me for video, though I would
still like it to be high enough not to have noticeable blotches or
smears or other obvious artifacts, but if those are only in a single
frame, it should not be too noticeable when playing the clip.

I would like the still photos to be clear enough that distant text
(such as, say, a "No Parking" sign or license plates at 50 feet) are
legible.

 

I use a 3.34 Mp camera now, an Olympus C-3040. I would not want
anything of less quality. Maybe I am becoming too familiar with it,
but I notice so much imperfection in the photos I take, the lack of
resolution of sharp edges on blades of grass, the fuzzy blurring on
all text. To make matter more apparent, I have been scanning my old
film negatives and other film photos with my Epson Perfection 3200
flatbed scanner. I can easily make out my iris striations from my
graduation photo using my flatbed scanner. I have never been able to
get such a shot using my digital camera. This makes me unsatisfied.

 

This has happened so often over the last 25 years, and seems to be
happening with increasing frequency. I imagine what I would like, and
someone else brings it to market. That saves me the trouble.

"NEW YORK – An odd-looking van sprouts 13 digital cameras that its
builder wants to use to photograph 50 million buildings in the country
while driving, taking pictures every 15 feet.

"The van's drive-by snaps would be matched against GPS satellite
positioning data and aerial photographs in a database. Police,
insurance agents and others then could call up overhead and
street-level views simply by entering an address.

"The setup from Imageos Inc. was one of the security-related exhibits
on display at this year's CeBIT America technology trade show, which
opened here Tuesday."

Tech show report: How to photograph 50 million buildings at 40 mph
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/computing/20040525-1257-techshow.html

The only thing I don't see is a video feed. It looks like it takes
only still photos.