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Hardware Projects : CVS camcorder hacking: stereoscopic (3d) video Back
Stereoscopic Video Using the CVS Camcorder
I've wanted to make stereoscopic videos for a long time now, but buying two camcorders was always much too expensive for me to justify it. When the CVS camcorders came along, I thought they would be great candidates.
There were a couple problems with just using the two camcorders as they were. First, the cable I made for the cameras really sucked. Second, the cameras aren't very flat on the sides, so it's difficult to keep them steady when holding them together for the stereo effect.
The connector I had been using on these cameras was just an old printer cable that I had cut up and connected to half of a usb cable. It would always disconnect from the camera during transfers, and I had to hold it in without moving it in order to get any pictures off my cameras. This sucked, so I needed to think of a better way for the cameras to connect to my USB port. I have three cameras and two camcorders with this stupid connection on the side, so I wanted to use a plug that I have plenty of. Since I have a ton of RJ45 ends, I settled on those. I soldered the RJ45 plug to the cameras and the jack to the usb cable that plugs into the computer. Then I added hot glue for good luck.
A word of advice: if you try this, make sure you desolder the jack from the old ethernet board. If you don't, you could end up frying 2 out of 4 usb connections on your laptop if the board shorts the +5v and -5v with a trace that's not visible...
To make things stable, I wanted something that I could easily take apart if I wanted to use one camera by itself, and something that was sturdy but small. I decided using two 32 MB sticks of RAM and rubber bands would probably do the trick. Why RAM and rubber bands? Because duct tape and wood didn't work out so well.
There you have it, a cheap(ish) video stereoscope setup. You'll only get a resolution of 320x240 or possibly 640x480, but hey... what can you expect from "disposable" camcorders?
Possible future plans:
shared case
shared buttons
shared power
interchangeable lenses/filters (macro, normal, wide angle, IR only, visible only)
USB connections, or possibly even fit a small USB hub in the case so I only need one jack
I've put up some videos I've taken with this setup here
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