right exactly. and even if next year rules make my idea invalid i can still use it in the stands or even record picture from the camera which would be way cool. 
so its okay to break the rules, just as long as no one gets caught? cause if so this is the poorest example of gracious professionalism i have ever seen
and an FYI, the inspectors are not FIRST engineers, or referees, which means that the rules involving no transmitting to the playerstation, would fall upon the head ref and the ref staff, not an inspector
Ok i like the fact that this is freakishly cool. It would put quite and intresting spin on the competition. But the thing about this is, its definetly not a subtle feature, all inspectors would question it. I doubt itâd be allowed in the drivers station, thats my gut instinct on this one, but AV uses for it would be pretty cool. Youâd get some serious video footage too. But it will be questioned at ANY Offical First competition.
I donât think these 2005 Q&As are unclear:
**1355 Section: 5.3.4.2 Status: Answered Date Answered: 1/28/2005 **
Q: Can we use cameras other than the CMUCam2 (such as a USB webcam) on the robot along with one or two CMUCam2s?
A: Yes if the part meets the 2005 Part Use Flowchart and you do not provide live feedback to your drivers.
**1039 Section: 5.3.4.2 Status: Answered Date Answered: 1/11/2005 **
Q: Are we able to have a mounted camera on the robot providing live feedback from the arena floor?
A: Cameras are allowed with FIRSTâs permission but the video output cannot be transmitted to your drivers for control purposes during any match.
**1278 Section: 5.3.1 Status: Answered Date Answered: 1/24/2005 **
Q: We need to clear the use of a secure 2.4Ghz 802.11b based camera on our robot for giving drivers a 1st person view along with the possibility of transmitting to the âjumbotronâ in the competition for the crowdâs benefit, is either idea ok?
A: Permission should be requested onsite from the Innovation First representative. Live feedback to the driver station is NOT allowed. With permission, we have allowed live video to be shown via the large screen for short periods of time.
thanks for that last post no one showed it to me and i had trouble finding it on FIRST. and as to the certian inspectors redflag different things im saying that certian inspectors will point at something and say its off but if you went to another they would look at it and say its fine thats just the way it is we had two look at our robot and and flat out disagree. its not anyhting to do with the rules (at least in the context im using i know now that the camera scratchs pretty hard on some of the rules) just something that erks one wont another and that statement got pretty misunderstood im not talking about sneaking anything through or cheating im saying there are stricter inspectors than others. i didnt have any intention to sneak anything at the time from the info i had i thought it would be an interpritation of rules now ive decided to use it to display dashboard info to our driver which i hope is legal and i would like to thank sanddrag for his helpfull advice as i still intend to use the camera but so our team members in the stands can get an awsome view (which means the camera is no longer a custom circuit and now a nonfunctional decoration) i hope this clears some things up and i still hope next years rules change thank you for your support or constructional criticism.
sighâŚ
this will happen every year with some sort of topicâŚcameras used for live feedback have been banned since i started first in 2000. every year its been something like the camera topic that has been stressed by teams for their own beneifits. IE wedges, and shrouds. i think that instead of finding the grey area in every single rule, you should just follow them the way first wrote them, sure there are updates to clarify them, BUT WHY MUST WE KEEP LOOKING FOR GREY AREAS??? CAN WE NOT JUST PLAY THE GAME AS A GAME AND NOT TAKE IT SO SERIOUS? i know i didnt want to become an engineer because i won an award. i got enthusiastic about engineering because of the many different aspects of the robotsâŚnot finding shortcuts to winâŚsorry if this upsets people but its really childish.
if you read my previous post i was not looking for grey areas i thought when the post first started it was black and white and after i FINALLY got someone to show me text that contradicted my idea i proposed a new use. you are mistaken in the content of your post i in no way was trying to blur the rules for my own benefit. also that same enthusiasm is what prompted me to this idea in the first place. 
i wasnt criticizing you in particular, it happens every year with some topicâŚ
This thread was meant to be a place for people to talk about uses of HUDs and how to make them cooler NOT AN ARGUMENT OVER THE lEGALITY OF A CAMERA i apoligize to all who posted here with that misconception and i admit to letting the thread get away from me and so i have decided to post a bunch of cool uses.
if connected to an IR camera you now have a night vision headset. you can connect it to your TV for your own personal screen (cool when playing Halo 2) you can also mount a camera to a RC like a car or plane and get a really good view :). oh and they would be excellent to use as a mini screen for working with flight simulation programs (my dad wants to borrow it for work 
)
Let me just plug the site that I found the info on: FIRSTSearch (thanks AIBob!).
FIRSTSearch should be in every FIRSTers bookmarks.
ok thanks. soooo⌠anyone have good uses my dads friend heard about it and he wants to use it to view camera signals from his RC airplane.
Lol, I can just imagine people running around with those things on.
i love that pack man post. well i got the screen and its amazing ill post a pic soon.