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Wireless USB webcam

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MrNobody

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Hi, I am thinking about my final year project which i will be doing next year..
I have this idea to build a "USB to RF" transmitter and receiver unit..
How it works is like this, I plug the RF receiver unit to the USB port of the computer and the transmitter unit to my USB webcam.. The transmitter unit is powered by battery and the receiver unit is powered by computer USB port hopefully (if the power is not sufficient then i can use battery as well)..
The webcam will function like a normal webcam jst that it is wireless..
The frames doesn't have to be fast, maybe 10 frames per second is good enough..

Just wondering if the idea will work.. What do you guys think..?
Any comments and thoughts would be appreciated..
 
USB 1.0 maybe, but in order to keep up with USB latencies you're going to need a bi directional RF connection using one frequency for the TX data and the other for the RX data. So you're looking at a minimum bandwidth requirement of 24mbits on the radio link side. That's very high! This might be practical by using USB-Ethernet converter over a wifi connection.
 
Sceadwian:
What dictates the amount of bandwidth needed..? Is it the picture quality of the webcam as in the colour of it, the frame rate..? If the webcam only sends black & white/monochrome, would it require less bandwidth..?

Nigel Goodwin:
Well, Wireless camera are expensive in where I stay.. which is Malaysia.. about $500+.. Besides, building it would be a learning apportunity for me as well.. And maybe with a few changes, I can use other peripherals with the "USB to RF" unit.. Besides, when u say inferior, in what sense would it be inferior..?
 
MrNobody said:
Sceadwian:
What dictates the amount of bandwidth needed..? Is it the picture quality of the webcam as in the colour of it, the frame rate..? If the webcam only sends black & white/monochrome, would it require less bandwidth..?

Yes, monochrome will reduce the bandwidth.

Nigel Goodwin:
Well, Wireless camera are expensive in where I stay.. which is Malaysia.. about $500+.. Besides, building it would be a learning apportunity for me as well.. And maybe with a few changes, I can use other peripherals with the "USB to RF" unit.. Besides, when u say inferior, in what sense would it be inferior..?

Feel free to try, but it's a very complex subject, and almost certainly illegal as well. Inferior because of the limited bandwidth, and as you have already suggested, limited frame rate to try and reduce the bandwidth. Another obvious reduction is the resolution of the picture - reducing the resolution reduces bandwidth.
 
Nigel Goodwin said:
Yes, monochrome will reduce the bandwidth.



Feel free to try, but it's a very complex subject, and almost certainly illegal as well. Inferior because of the limited bandwidth, and as you have already suggested, limited frame rate to try and reduce the bandwidth. Another obvious reduction is the resolution of the picture - reducing the resolution reduces bandwidth.
Thanks for the input.. About it being illegal, in what way would it be illegal..? I am ignorant about this things..


Umm.. actually, one of the reason why I thought of that project is because, if it works, I can attach it onto a remote control car so that I can see where the car go.. Because of that, it being inferior in the sense of frame rate and it being monochrome is ok.. Well, its jst a thought anyway....

Thanks..
 
MrNobody said:
Thanks for the input.. About it being illegal, in what way would it be illegal..? I am ignorant about this things..

Transmitters require licences, except for 'licence free' ones, and to get licence free status you would have to comply to the legislation, and probably need to submit samples for testing (an expensive procedure).

I don't know what the penalties for running unlicenced transmitters is in your country?, but in the UK it goes from fines to jail time - you would also be responsible for any damage caused by operation of an illegal transmitter. Bear in mind it could block emergency channels, and even cause failure of other electronic devices.

From what you say about wanting to use it on a toy car, there's no need for USB at all - you could simply use an ordinary composite camera and an AM transmitter to feed a normal TV set. Not that this isn't any less illegal!.

A legal option, depending on your laws, might be to use a composite camera and a video sender, these usually work about 2.4GHz.
 
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