Webcam issue under Windows (was in Caption Contest #263)

[RebeccaMarils]

Hello all

I'm newbie on this forum. I read your forum few days and now I registered. As I see community here is friendly enough.
Now I have abstract question however I hope someone will help me here. I have a problem with my webcam. I need use it in several applications at the same time however Windows does not allow this. Maybe you know some programs that allow sharing my cam to several applications. I hope there are some cam splitters or video cloning soft.

Thanks In Advance

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by RebeccaMarils

Hello all

I'm newbie on this forum. I read your forum few days and now I registered. As I see community here is friendly enough.
Now I have abstract question however I hope someone will help me here. I have a problem with my webcam. I need use it in several applications at the same time however Windows does not allow this. Maybe you know some programs that allow sharing my cam to several applications. I hope there are some cam splitters or video cloning soft.

Thanks In Advance

First off, this is not the right forum for this question ... could one of the mods move this please?

Next, Welcome to Chief Delphi ... and, yeah, we're pretty friendly .

Now on to your question. Windows usually does not control webcams. The drivers and camera firmware generally do. Most webcams (not all) can generate HTML output so that 'any and all' programs that want to can 'read' the video feed. This is usually set up in the configuration of the webcam. Look in your webcam documentation (I know ... read the instructions ) to see if an HTML feed can be set up and what IP address it would be on. Then read the feed from that IP.

Hope this helps.

[ATannahill]

After you get your webcam working you may want to look into what this forum is all about. FIRST robotics. Forgive me if you are already on a team, I do not see any indication in your information. You can see some videos of what we do over at thebluealliance.net just click on the red light. If you are interested, feel free to come back here and ask.

[Billfred]

Just as a housekeeping note, I split this discussion off from last week's caption contest thread. Continue.

[RyanCahoon]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

Windows usually does not control webcams. The drivers and camera firmware generally do. Most webcams (not all) can generate HTML output so that 'any and all' programs that want to can 'read' the video feed. This is usually set up in the configuration of the webcam. Look in your webcam documentation (I know ... read the instructions ) to see if an HTML feed can be set up and what IP address it would be on. Then read the feed from that IP.

[Daniel_LaFleur], I think you're thinking of netcams, i.e. cameras attached to a network. Webcams usually refer to cameras generally purposed for communication over a network, but generally connect through USB or IEEE-1394 (Firewire). Yes, the drivers control the webcams, but most of the drivers are set up to interface with Window's multimedia driver subsystem, which generally gives exclusive control of a device to one program at a time.

[RebeccaMarils], let me also welcome you to the Chief Delphi forums. After seconding [rtfgnow]'s suggestion, here's a couple of possible answers to your question. There are several commercial software packages out there that do what you describe. Assuming you're using Windows, a quick Google search yields WebCamSplitter and CamSplitter. A little more digging yielded a free download called ManyCam that seems to do what you want. I haven't tried it myself, but it apparently got 5 stars from the C|Net Download editors.

Good luck,
--Ryan