USB Cameras

Generic camera configuration

Under Linux, USB cameras use the Video4Linux You need to set up a device node entry for the CPiA camera. Use the following command, if you have no other Video4Linux devices:

mknod /dev/video0 c 81 0
ln -s /dev/video0 /dev/video

To use the device, you need some video tools. There are a fairly wide range of tools available. http://millennium.diads.com/bdirks/ has a package that is a generally named something like apps20000217.tgz, depending on the date of release. It has both X and text-mode tools. Using the text mode tools will allow you to do things like

./vctrl 320x240x24
./vcat | rawtoppm -bgr 320 240 | xv -
These tools default to using /dev/video if not otherwise specified, hence the symbolic link made previously.

There are other suitable tools available. Links to some of these tools are provided in the Linux USB web site at http://www.linux-usb.org.

USB CPiA Camera support

This driver supports a certain chipset made by Vision, and used in a range of USB cameras (notably the Creative WebCamII). You can see the range of products at http://www.vvl.co.uk/products/oems/videoconferencing.htm. To make the CPiA camera driver work, you need to select Video For Linux support (under Character Devices if using menuconfig), and then select CPiA Video For Linux and CPiA USB Lowlevel Support options within the Video For Linux.

USB OV511 Camera support

This driver supports a certain chipset made by OmniVision, and used in a range of USB cameras (notably the Creative WebCam III). To make the OV511 driver work, you also need to select Video For Linux support (under Character Devices if using menuconfig).

USB IBM (Xirlink) C-it Camera support

This driver supports the Xirlink C-it cameras, also sold by IBM. To make the OV511 driver work, you also need to select Video For Linux support (under Character Devices if using menuconfig).