Time lapse photography with NX70v?

[demannu]

Is there any possibility of someone coming with a app that can use the camera to take pictures 10 seconsds apart from one another, and then stitch them into a movie file? I know I know, probably a long shot, but this is the only place I could think to ask. Thanks for any help. BTW the reason I wanted this was because I was driving down the freeway with the movie recorder going, and got a really cool, but really long movie of the sky passing by as I was driving. Just kinda neat. anyway, thanks again.

-d

[UI018397]

So far, only Sony knows how to drive the camera logic.....

[demannu]

sad very sad...

[michael1960]

Hey, I had the same idea of doing a timelapsed movie while driving. Must be cool to watch it. :)

Don't give up hope too soon! There is an excellent video recorder/player software for the NR70 which is called VIVID. You may like to have a look at their website (http://www.clievideo.com/).

The software allows a wide range of recording and playback options. They don't allow you to take one frame every 10 seconds but at least you can take 1 fps and playback with 15 fps. You can also vary the size of the movie from 80x60 to 320x240.

Okay, bad news is that the software does not run on the NX70 (yet). But I sent an email to the VIVID support team and also sent them a link to this thread at Cliesource. Who knows? Perhaps they will make it available on the NX70 soon? :)

[urban75]

I've mailed them as well - I reckon it would be a great addition to my NX70.

[demannu]

That looks really cool, and pretty much what I was looking for. for $30 It's hecka worth it. Thanks to everyone.

-d

[urban75]

Here's the reply I got from them re: will they be developing a NX70 version?

"Yes, although Sony is making it very difficult for us developers by not releasing the necessary information on how to control the camera."

[marner]

OK, I know this may not be a solution, but my thoughts are this.


A program that simulates a keypress every 'x' seconds, and only when a particular aplication is running.


For instance, I can manually launch Clie Camera, and by pressing either Enter, Space or Tab on the keypad (NX70V) I can take a picture.

So a DA that can send one of these key presses to the app every say 3 seconds, causing a picture to be taken, and will run whilst Camera app is running. Add a routine to compare the just taken picture, to the one previous, and you have motion detection (or at least change detection). It could delete the picture before last, if they compare the same, to save memory.

If it could also send that picture via TCP or IR, and you'd have a Webcam, very slow frames, but still a Webcam.

Or for security type use, it adds a visual time/date stamp to the saved picture, with the compare function taking this into account of course.

Now, I am a programmer, but have not written anything for a Palm, let alone a DA for a Palm, otherwise I would be announcing a new free program to do the above. :)

I have been searching for an app to do this, but the closest I have got is 'CRONY', which will only work every 5 minutes, and can launch an app, and press a button. BUT I can't find the button ID of the Camera app (using RsrcEdit comes up with a lot, but every one I tried doesn't work), and CRONY needs the button ID to work.

So, am I asking too much. Has this already been tried, and shot down as impossible. If possible, can anyone do it?

Like I said at the start of what has become a long post, it is not the solution we want (Sony API would be great), but it would still work for me, and I am assuming many others as well.

PS This app would work with Voice Recorder as well. Wakeup and record sound.

[patrickl]

I was thinking along the same line as marner.

A program like OKey can press the OK button (with CTRL+O) no matter which program it is in. I guess you can go through all buttons and find the ID by checking the label?

But wouldn't just sending an Enter keystroke be enough?

I'm just not sure if it will work though. It seems like some programs suppress/overrule the notifications. Just like in Netfront, OKey doesn't seem to work in ClieCamera.

[lal2707]

There are so many applications that could be developed for the NX only if Sony were to become a bit more 'open' re:drivers etc. This would be a great feature along with being able to use the NX as a webcam.

Not sure, from past experience, if Sonly will release anything such as APIs for developers

[patrickl]

Actually, if you get the time lapse stuff working with a notification program, then you could probably also use that as a webcam.

[marner]

Originally posted by patrickl
I was thinking along the same line as marner.

A program like OKey can press the OK button (with CTRL+O) no matter which program it is in. I guess you can go through all buttons and find the ID by checking the label?

But wouldn't just sending an Enter keystroke be enough?

I'm just not sure if it will work though. It seems like some programs suppress/overrule the notifications. Just like in Netfront, OKey doesn't seem to work in ClieCamera.

I have used RsrcEdit to view the Camera App. It gives me a lot of ID's for Buttons etc. But using that ID does not cause the Camera App to take a picture. I have not been thru them all, only about 25 ID's (there are a lot, don't know why)

Sending the Enter key is all that is needed, IF the app sees it. I would assume that an external keyboard driver would work, as it would have to be able to send all keystrokes. Maybe an external device plugged in would work, but that would defeat the purpose somewhat.

I haven't used OKey, but maybe the notification is different, or is it a OS5 thing? I can't believe Sony would go to all the trouble of disabling this sort of notification via other apps, but then apparently they did go to a lot of trouble with the CF Driver issue, so they might have.

Oh for an API!

[n2ifp]

I am getting more inclined to dump Sony, it waves the candy in front of us, but won't let us have any!

[patrickl]

Originally posted by n2ifp
I am getting more inclined to dump Sony, it waves the candy in front of us, but won't let us have any!
Oh come on, they probably have a pretty good explanation not to give just everyone the specs of everything. The software that comes along with the Clie is good enough that you don't really need a replacement.

Personally I think they are working on some new and improved gadgets and API's. If they would release the curent API's they would then be forced to implement both API's in newer devices (they learnt from their mistake going to OS5 with the OS5 High density API and their own Highres API)

Sony is just too far ahead for PalmOS to keep up with them. If anyone should be blamed then it is PalmOS. That OS just sux in that it only supports what it was designed for years ago. If Sony would be able to buy PalmOS or get more influence then they could fix the standard OS to incorporate support for all the new gadgets. Sony releasing non-standard specs to all developers is just NOT a good idea, so i sincerely hope they never will.

There, I said it :D

[patrickl]

marner,

Programs that work on event notification are the OS5 equivalent of "Hacks". They basically sit in the background and are hooked on certain events. Since OKey does not work in NetFront I guess you can overrule them. Maybe by placing a hook on it yourself and not letting others now of the event taking place after you received it. Maybe not even on purpose, but just not thinking that someone might want to be notified of that event. PalmOS is not multitasking, so they might not understand that other programs would be "active" at the same time (that would imply some stupidity, but it's more an explanation to me than the standard "Evil Sony plot").

[rquinlan19]

What about Fullscreen from ej? http://www.swooze.com

That does exaclty what you want. But I have no idea if it will run on OS5

[michael1960]

Originally posted by rquinlan19
What about Fullscreen from ej? http://www.swooze.com

That does exaclty what you want. But I have no idea if it will run on OS5

I registered Fullscreen 1.03 last year while I still had my NR70. It looked quite promising at that time and I was looking forward to some updates, but it seems the developer hasn't spent much effort on improving it in the meantime. He writes: "...my project at work is in its final stages, and leaves me with no time for FullScreen work."

I tried the Prerelease Version 1.5 on my NX70 but it doesn't work. So if you want Time lapse photography on the NX70, then forget about Fullscreen. :(

[Unregistered]

There is a new app called FunCam that will allow you to set your cam. for time-lapse and some other functions. Check out the announcement at Clieplanet. Works well on my NX70.


------------------------------------------------
Hecklerz
posting wirelessly
from my NX70

[lal2707]

I have seen the Clieplanet article but did not test the beta as you have to pay to do that - I do not do that for anyone. I prefer to pay when the product is released.

How have other people found Funcam?

[michael1960]

The announcment sounds promising. But there is too little information available at this time. And the ultimate and unavoidable question is: Will it work with the Eruware CF Driver? ;)

[CliePet]

> So far, only Sony knows how to drive the camera logic.....
[and other comments about APIs]

FWIW: they *did* have a camera API in the Sony specific SDK. CamLib and all the APIs necessary to capture pictures (live preview, still picture capture, but not movie). This was in the NR70V era SDK.

It isn't in the newer PalmOS 5 SDK (NX/NZ), or at least I haven't found it. I haven't tried it to see if the old API works on the NX/NZ (perhaps wishful thinking)

[abosco]

>>The software that comes along with the Clie is good enough that you don't really need a replacement.

What about for the given thread's idea? Time lapse photography? If the API's were given out, then we would probably have an application that can do this.

What about using the camera for video conference over Wifi? Issue the Wifi API, sound API, voice recorder API, and camera API, and you've got a hell of a software.

What about a Wifi scanning software? We can't have it because Sony decides they want the Wifi API libraries to themselves. CF slot for peripherals? Yeah, right.

If Sony's bundled software was good enough, we wouldn't care. There's so much more my NX is capable of. Sony's just too stubborn to let us have it.

[hecklerz]

Originally posted by lal2707
I have seen the Clieplanet article but did not test the beta as you have to pay to do that - I do not do that for anyone. I prefer to pay when the product is released.

How have other people found Funcam?

I suppose I'm beta testing, but it's more like an initial release. Everything works so far so I didn't mind paying $8 for it. All us Zlauncher users paid more and it's a beta version :) I think the beta part is that more features or impovements on current features are still in the works. What I like about it so far:

1. IR remote capture. I can use the tiny remote from my Canon G1 dig cam to remotely fire the NX's shutter and it can be set to a delay.

2. Time lapse. You can set delay to first capture, capture amount and frequency.

3. It can do the same with video and voice capture.

Those are my thoughts so far.

[marner]

Another FunCam Beta Tester here.

NX70V/G with Euroware Compact Flash Driver.

I have only tested the Camera app with the CF driver, but it does work :)

Also, I have used my Nokia 6210 to trigger camera captures by sending a VCard via IR.

I don't know exactly how they are doing it, but it does work on NX, by using the existing Sony apps. Whether it is by API calls or by keypresses is yet to be determined by us not in the know.

I think more responses to the developers from the Beta testers would see this go from Beta to Release a lot faster, cause if you don't know of a problem, you can't fix it.

Having said that, FunCam version 0.59 (2nd beta version) has been quite stable for me, so I would hope to see a release soon. Any additional features (and I have asked for some:) ) could then come out later.

[stever]

The bad news? -- none so far

medium news? -- very stable, no probs, works with CFUtilty, is fun. looks ready to go to me, but maybe someone else has had a prob?

interesting news? They said the initial release is aimed at present capabilities when stable, but hopes are for added features like motion sensing, or sound triggered, and others.

[skizo]

Fun cam 0.59 for Clié vill do the trick. get it at: http://www.pdagreen.com/software_detail.asp?id=7701

[patrickl]

I don't know exactly how they are doing it, but it does work on NX, by using the existing Sony apps. Whether it is by API calls or by keypresses is yet to be determined by us not in the know.
Well I'm pretty sure they use fake keypresses. When I try FunCam it doesn't work. It starts the ZLauncher QuickLauncher every 30 seconds ;) (note: I use the capture button to start QuickLauncher)

[reimer]

Hi Patrickl

You almost right about keypresses (Fun Cam does more than that) .
If it does not work, is because of mapping capture button to external utility disables Fun Cam trigger (maybe it will work once and then automatically will be disabled) .
To use Fun Cam it is required not to map capture button.
Please try demo again without mapping, and you see that it will work fine!
If you have more questions about this, please contact funcam@net-cell.com

[Alistar]

Yea, I use funcam as well.
Time lapse works, sort of. You are still limited by how fast the camera app will recover from taking a picture. Which is a little over 1 second. I actually overclocked it is about .40-.45 seconds now.

I actually really like the IR mode the best.

Time lapse for the movie recorder was not what I wanted it to be. I was hoping that they had managed to pause the recording so the timelapse would be all on oen clip. Rather it just starts and stops every x second(s). It still works nicely though.

[mykelfurman]

PDAGREEN sells two versions of funcam, 1 is just picture taking for us nr70v people, and the other is for the full movie/voice/still program. The picture only one is $9.95 and the other is $12.95. Still same version (1.03).
On another note, anyone have a good free/shareware program that can stitch many images into a movie and save it as an mpeg,avi,mov or whatever? I done this in the past and made an animated gif file, but being able to snap 999 pictures over a certain time frama and then build it into a movie would be nice, but I think it'd be too much for an animated gif.
suggestions?

[Unregistered]

Try "Microsoft GIF Animator". It's freeware.

[ronko01]

Try TimerCAM which was written for the Clie NX.

http://www.hirich.com.tw/timerCAM.html

It is freeware and only 20K.

Ronko

[ddsmith]

TimerCAM is a nice addition to my NX70. I just put it on today and it seems to work great.

[RedSlug]

I was **this** close to buying funcam too. I'm glad I had a little patience. Thanks TimerCam!!

[PC-Duke]

Where can I download TimerCam, the link doesn't take you to anything related to TimerCam nor PDA (except they seel PDA keyboards).? Can anyone sent it to me or upload it somewhere since it's freeware??

Would be greatly appreciated!

TCL

[Palmipede]

That's right...The link doesn't seem to be active anymore.

Since it's a freeware, distributed "as is" (just a .prc file), I assume that I can e-mail you this file. Send me a PM with your e-mail address and I'll send to you.


Sorry, but the upload process is not working with my zip file...

:confused:

[RogerMoore]

Has anyone had any problems with the TimerCAm App messing up their DB5 alarms?

[urban75]

Could someone mail me a copy of timercam too?

I can't understand anything on that page!

My address is mike - at - urban75.com

Thanks!

[D-Pac]

me too please:
mcdarius-at-phreaker.net

Cheers!

[xiaoming]

me too! at xiaoming017@hotmail.com

Thanks!

[Unregistered]

Me three!! apurvab@hotmail.com

[jwsp]

suggest it to the developers of funcam, they are open to ideas and seem quite good at putting them into operation.