Camera and image encoding

Hardware
1

Hello everybody,

I saw the security camera in the kickstarter projects. It seem’s pretty cool. I’m just wondering what kind of camera modules are you using?

I saw a topic saying any camera interface based on SPI for example. But most of the cameras I find have DVP or MIPI-CSI2 interface. Do I need a special chip to do the conversion or am I mixing everything?

My second question is about the encoding. Most of the cameras I’m looking gives the image in RAW RGB or YUV422 format. Are you transmitting the image in that kind of format? Are you encoding the image in an over format like MPEG? If you are encoding the image are you doing it with the STM32F103CB?

I hope I was clear enough. If not please tell me what’s not clear and I’ll try to be more clear.

Thank you very much for your attention.

1 Like
2

The module that we have in the example Kickstarter project is a simple UART camera that does JPEG compression on board. That way we don’t have to burden the STM32 with encoding.

Here’s a rough approximation of what we used:

3

Thank you very much. Have a nice day

4

@qDescombes: This might be suitable (cheaper) alternatives for you:
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/grove-serial-camera-kit-p-1608.html or
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1386 or
http://www.adafruit.com/products/397

I’m using the second one with an Atmel Mega32u4, so the Core will have no problems with it.

1 Like
5

Is there a tutorial available about how to connect a camera module and then to transfer the photos to a computer?

1 Like
6

Sorry @Sauli, we don’t have such a tutorial written.

7

Could you share the wiring example and the code you did for this?

8

Sorry @Sauli - the prototype was built very early and is based on much earlier versions of the Spark Core, so it doesn’t work with the current Core and doesn’t use our Wiring implementation, which hadn’t been created yet. At some point we’ll re-build it and re-document, but it’s not our top priority right now. In the meantime, I’d encourage you to look at the Arduino code for the Sparkfun link I had above; it should be straightforward to port to the Spark Core.

9

I just signed up and have a wish list of being able to transmit live video streaming to an iOS / Android Device (maybe pc too?) I’d like to know where to get started as well, will that camera module also support video?

I’m new to this so any help is appreciated